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100 



-ID 



ATURE S 



FINER 



FORCES 



Rama Prasdd, M.A. 




THE SCIENCE OF BREATH 



PHILOSOPHY OF THE TATTVAS 



TRANSLATED FROM THE SANSKRIT, WITH INTRODUCTORY AND EXPLANATORY 

ESSAYS ON 



NATURE S FINER FORCES 



REPRINTED FROM "THE THEOSOI HIST," WITH MODIFICATIONS 
AND ADDITIONS. 



RAMA PR AS AD, M.A., F.T.S. 



Its one absolute attribute, which is itself, eternal, ceaseless Motion, is called 
in esoteric parlance the "Great Breath," which is the perpetual motion of the 
Universe, in the sense of limitless, ever-present Space. 

H. P. Blai-atskv : The Seoet Docti fne. 



THIRD AN D REVISED EDITION. 



LONDON : 

THE THEOSOPHICAL PUBLISHING SOCIETY 
161, NEW BOND STREET, W. 

Reprinted 1907. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

The Tattvas . 
Evolution 

The Mutual Relation of the Tattvas and of the Principles . 19 

Prana . . 3 

The Mind . . 8 9 

The Cosmic Picture-Gallery I 22 

The Manifestations of Psychic Force 14 

Yoga The Soul . 45 

The Spirit . ] 75 

The Science of Breath l! ^5 

GLOSSARY 2 37 



PREFACE. 

A WORD of explanation is necessary with regard 
to the book now offered to the public. In the ninth 
and tenth volumes of The Thcosophist I wrote certain 
essays on "Nature s Finer Forces." The subject of 
these essays interested the readers of TJie Thcosophist 
so much, that I was asked to issue the series of essays 
in book form. On reading the essays for this purpose 
I found that in order to make a book they must be 
almost entirely rearranged and perhaps re- written. 
However, not being equal to the task of re-writing 
what I had once written, I determined to publish a 
translation of the book in Sanskrit on the Science of 
Breath and the Philosophy of the Tattvas. As, more 
over, without these essays the book would have been 
quite unintelligible, I decided to add them to the book 
by way of an illustrative introduction. This accord 
ingly has been done. The essays in The Thcosophist 
have been reprinted with certain additions, modifica 
tions and corrections. Besides, I have written several 
more essays in order to make the explanations more 
complete and authoritative. 

I was confirmed in this course by one more coil 



PREFACE. 



sideration. The book contains a good deal more than 
the essays touched upon, and I thought it better to 
lay all of it before the public. 

The book is sure to throw a good deal of light 
upon the scientific researches of the ancient Aryans 
of India, and it will leave no doubt in a candid mind 
that the religion of ancient India had a scientific basis. 
It is chiefly for this reason that I have drawn my illus 
trations of the Tattvic Law from the Upanishads. 

There is a good deal in the book which can only be 
shown to be true by long and diligent experiment. 
Those who are devoted to the pursuit of truth with 
out prejudice will no doubt be ready to wait before 
they form any opinion about such portions of the 
book. Others it is useless to reason with. 

To the former class of students I have to say one 
word more. From my own experience I can tell them 
that the more they study the book, the more wisdom 
they are sure to find in it, and let me hope that ere 
long I shall have a goodly number of colleagues, who 
will with me try their best to explain and illustrate 
the book still better and more thoroughly. 
MEERUT, INDIA, RAMA PRASAD. 

November 5///, 1889. 



PREFACE TO THE SECOND AND 
REVISED EDITION. 

THE points on which revision has been attempted 
are: (i) the style of printing has been made uniform 
with the rest of the books printed on the "H. P. B." 
Press; (2) consistency in transliteration of Sanskrit 
terms has been studied, and a number of errors cor 
rected; (3) the English of some phrases has been 
improved; and (4) a few passages have been omitted 
from the text. R. H. is responsible for some small 
portion of the work of revision, and for the rest the 
undersigned, who has a high appreciation of Mr. Rama 
Prasad s essays an appreciation, however, which is 
not extended to certain portions of the Tantrik work 

he has so ably translated. 

G. R. S. M. 
LONDON, 1894. 



NATURE S FINER FORCES, 

AND THF.IR INFLUENCE UPON 

HUMAN LIFE AND DESTINY. 



i. 

THE TATTVAS. 

THE Tattvas are the five modifications of the Great 
Breath. Acting upon Prakriti this Great Breath 
throws it into five states, having distinctive vibratory 
motions, and performing different functions. The 
first outcome of the evolutionary state of Parabrah- 
man is the Akasha Tattva. After this come in order 
the Vayu, the Tejas, the Apas and the Prithivi. They 
are variously known as Mahabhiitas. The word 
Akasha is generally translated into English by the 
word ether. Unfortunately, however, to modern Eng 
lish science sound is not known to be the distinguish 
ing quality of ether. Some few might also have the 
idea that the modern medium of light is the same as 
Akasha. This, I believe, is a mistake. The lumini- 
ferous ether is the subtle Tejas Tattva, and not the 
Akasha. All the five subtle Tattvas might no doubt 
be called ethers, but to use the term ether for Akasha, 



2 NATURE S FIXER FORCES. 

without any distinguishing epithet, is misleading. 
We might call Akasha the sonoriferous ether, the 
Vayu the tangiferous ether, Apas the gustiferous 
ether, and Prithivi the odoriferous ether. Just as 
there exists in the universe the luminiferous ether, an 
element of refined matter without which it has been 
found that the phenomena of light find no adequate 
explanation, so do there exist the four remaining 
ethers, elements of refined matter, without which it 
will be found that the phenomena of sound, touch, 
taste and smell find no adequate explanation. 

The luminiferous ether is supposed by modern 
science to be matter in a most refined state. It is the 
vibrations of this element that are said to constitute 
light. The vibrations are said to take place at right 
angles to the direction of the wave. Nearly the same 
is the description of the Tejas Tattva given in the 
book. It makes this Tattva move in an upward direc 
tion, and the centre of the direction is, of course, the 
direction of the wave. Besides, it says that one 
whole vibration of this element makes the figure of a 
triangle. 

Suppose in this figure A B is the direc 
tion of the wave; B C the direction of the 
vibration. C A is the line along which, 
seeing that in expansion the symmetrical 
arrangements of the atoms of a body are 
not changed, the vibrating atom must re- A 
turn to its symmetrical position in the line A B. 

The Tejas Tattva of the ancients is then exactly the 




Till , TATTYAS. 3 

luminiferous ether of the moderns, so far as the nature 
of the vibration is concerned. There is no concep 
tion, however, of the four remaining ethers, at all 
events in a direct manner, in modern science. The 
vibrations of Akasha, the sonoriferons ether, consti 
tute sound; and it is quite necessary to recognize the 
distinctive character of this form of motion. 

The experiment of the bell in a vacuum goes to 
prove that the vibrations of the atmosphere propagate 
sound. Any other media, however, such as the earth 
and the metals, are known to transmit sound in 
various degrees. There must, therefore, be some one 
thing in all these media which gives birth to sound 
the vibration which constitutes sound. That some 
thing is the Indian Akasha.* 

But Akasha is all-pervading, just as is the lumini 
ferous ether. Why, then, is not sound transmitted to 
our ears when a vacuum is produced in the bell-jar? 
The real fact is that we must make a difference between 
the vibrations of the elements which constitute sound 
and light, etc., and the vibrations of the media which 
transmit these impressions to our senses. It is not the 
vibrations of the ethers the subtle Tattvas that 
cause our perceptions, but the ethereal vibrations 

* The reader mis^ht be put in mind of the phenomena of the 
telephone, and still better those of the photophone. It is clear 
that the rays which transmit sound in the latter are not the visual 
rays of the sun. They are surely audible rays. The former are 
the vibrations of the luniinift ivns ether. \Vliat are the latter ? 
The vibrations, of course, of the sonoriferons ether, the constituent 
of the Indian Prana, which is called Akasha. 



( NATURE S FIXER FORCES. 

transferred to different media, which are so main- 
modifications of gross matter the Sthula Mahft- 
bh vitas. The luminiferous ether is present just as 
much in a darkened room as in the space without. 
The minutest space within the dimensions of the 
surrounding walls themselves is not void of it. For 
all this the luminosity of the exterior is not present in 
the interior. Why? The reason is that our ordinary 
vision does not see the vibrations of the luminiferous 
ether. It only sees the vibrations of the media which 
the ether pervades. The capability of being set into 
ethereal vibrations varies with different media. In 
the space without the darkened room the ether brings 
the atoms of the atmosphere into the necessary state 
of visual vibration, and one wide expanse of light is 
presented to our view. The same is the case with 
every other object that we see. The ether which per 
vades the object brings the atoms of that object into 
the necessary state of visual vibration. The strength 
of the ethereal vibrations which the presence of the 
sun imparts to the ether pervading our planet is not 
sufficient to evoke the same state in the dead matter 
of the darkening walls. The internal ether, divided 
from the external one by this dead mass, is itself cut 
off from such vibrations. The darkness of the room 
is thus the consequence, notwithstanding the presence 
therein of the luminiferous ether. An electric spark 
in the vacuum of a bell-jar must needs be transmitted 
to our eyes, because the glass of the jar which stands 
in contact with the internal luminiferous ether has a 



THK TATTVAS. c 

certain degree of the capability of being put into the 
state of visual vibration, which from thence is trans 
mitted to the external ether and thence to the eye. 
The same would never be the case if we were to use 
a porcelain or an earthen jar. It is this capability of 
being put into the state of visual vibration which in 
glass and similar objects we call transparency. 

To return to the sonoriferous ether (Akasha). Every 
form of gross matter has, to a certain extent, which 
varies with varying forms, what we may call auditory 
transparency. 

I have now to say something about the nature of 
the vibrations. Two things must be understood in 
this connection. In the first place the ex 
ternal form of the vibration is something 
like the hole of the ear. 

It throws matter which is subject to it, 
into the form of a dotted sheet. 
These dots are little points, rising above 
the common surface so as to produce micro 
scopic pits in the sheet. It is said to move 
by fits and starts (Sankrama), and to move 

in all directions (Sarvatogama). That 
means to say that the impulse falls 
back upon itself along the line of its 
former path, which lies on all sides of 
the direction of the wave. 
^^^^~- - , , / It will be understood that these 

ethers produce in gross media vibra 
tions similar to their own. The form, therefore, into 





v O v^ Mii 



6 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

which the auditory vibrations throw the atmospheric 
air is a true clue to the form of the ethereal vibration. 
And the vibrations of atmospheric air discovered by 
modern science are similar. 

I come now to the tangiferous ether (Vayu). The 
vibrations of this ether are described as being spheri 
cal in form, and the motion is said 



o^o%o to be at acute angles to the wave 
)0 (Tiryak). Such is the representation 



of these vibrations on the plane of 
the paper. 

The remarks about the transmis 
sion of sound in the case of Akasha 
apply here, too, mutatis mutandis. 

The gustiferous ether (Apas Tattva) is said to re 
semble in shape the half moon. It is, moreover, said 
to move downward. This direction is opposite to 
that of the luminiferous ether. This force, there 
fore, causes contraction. Here is the representation 
of the Apas vibrations on the plane of paper. 




The process of contraction will be considered when 
I come to the qualities of the Tattvas. 

The odoriferous ether (Prithivi) is said to be quad 
rangular in shape. Thus: 



THK TATTVAS. 



n 



This is said to move in the middle. It neithcr 
moves at right angles, nor at acute angles, nor up 
wards, nor downwards, but it moves along the line of 
the wave. The line and the quadrangle are in the 
same plane. 

These are the forms, and the modes of motion, of 
the five ethers. Of the five sensations of men, eaeli 
of these ethers gives birth to one, thus: 

1. Akasha, sonoriferous ether, sound. 

2. Vayu, tangiferous ether, touch. 

3. Tejas, luminiferous ether, colour. 

4. Apas, gustiferous ether, taste. 

5. Prithivi, odoriferous ether, smell. 

in the process of evolution these coexisting ethers, 
while retaining their general relative forms and pri 
mary qualities, contract the qualities of the other 
Tattvas. This is known as the process of Panclii- 
karana or division into five. 

If \ve take, as our book does, H, P. R, Y and L, to 
be the algebraical symbols for (r), (n), (3), (4), (5), 
respectively, the ethers after Panchikarana assume the 
following forms: 



NATURES FIXER FORCES. 



^ 



V R 



H 



(5) I< = + j. + -g- + y + -g- 

One molecule of each ether, consisting of eight 
atoms, has four of the original principal ethers, and 
one each of the remaining four. 

The following table will show the five qualities of 
each of the Tattvas after Panchikarana. 





SOUND. 


TOUCH. 


TASTE. 


COLOUR. | SMELL. 


(I.) II. 


















.. 




(2.) P. 


Very light. 


Rather cool. 


Acid 


The blue of 
the cloud . . 


Acid 






(3-) R. 


Light 
Heavy .... 


Very hot. . . . 


Hot 


Red 


Hot 


(4.) V. 


Cool... 


Astringent. 


White 


Astringent. 


(5-) I* 


Deep 


Slightly hot. 


Sweet 


Yellow 


Sweet 



It might be remarked here that the subtle Tattvas 
exist now in the universe on four planes. The higher 
of these planes differs from the lower in having a 
greater number of vibrations per second. The four 
planes are : 

1. Physiological Prana. 

2. Mental Manas. 

3. Psychic Vijndna. 

4. Spiritual Anaiida. 



THE TATTYAS. o 

I shall now, however, discuss some of the secondary 
qualities of these Tattvas. 

1. S/>aa\Tliis is a quality of the Akasha Tattva. 
It has been asserted that the vibration of this ether is 
shaped like the hole of the ear, and that in the body 
thereof are microscopic points (Vindus). It follows, 
evidently, that the interstices between the points serve 
to give space to ethereal minima, and offer them room 
for locomotion (Avakasha). 

2. Locomotion. This is the quality of the Vayu 
Tattva. Vayu is a form of motion itself, for motion in 
all directions is motion in a circle, large or small. The 
Vayu Tattva has itself the form of spherical motion. 
When to the motion which keeps up the form of the 
different ethers is added the stereotyped motion of the 
Vayu, locomotion is the result. 

3. Expansion. This is the quality 

of the Tejas Tattva. This follows / 
evidently from the shape and form of 
motion which is given to this ethe- [ 
real vibration. Suppose ABC is a \ B 
lump of metal: ^, 

If we apply to it a brand of fire, 
the luminiferous ether in it is set in motion, and that 
drives the gross atoms of the lump into similar mo 
tion. Suppose a is an atom. This being impelled to 
assume the shape of the Tejas, vibration goes towards 
n\ and then takes the symmetrical position of a". Simi 
larly does every point change its place round the 
centre of the piece of metal. Ultimately the whole 




io NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

piece assumes the shape of A B C . Expansion is thus 
the result. 

4. Contraction. This is the quality of the Apas 
Tattva. As has been remarked before, the direction 
of this ether is the reverse of the Agni, and it is 
therefore easy to understand that contraction is the 
result of the play of this Tattva. 

5. Cohesive Resistance. This is the quality of the 
Prithivi Tattva. This, it will be seen, is the reverse 
of Akasha. Akasha gives room for locomotion, while 
Prithivi resists it. This is the natural result of the 
direction and shape of this vibration. It covers up 
the spaces of the Akasha. 

6. Smoothness. This is a quality of the Apas Tattva. 
As the atoms of any body in contraction come near each 
other and assume the semi-lunar shape of the Apas, 
they must easily glide over each other. The very 
shape secures for the atoms easy motion. 

This, I believe, is sufficient to explain the general 
nature of the Tattvas. The different phases of their 
manifestation on all the planes of life will be taken 
up in their proper places. 



IT will be very interesting to trace, according to the 
theory of the Tattvas, the development of man, and 
the formation of the world. 

The Tattvas, as we have already seen, are the modi 
fications of Svara. Regarding Svara, we find in our 
book: 

"In the Svara are the Vedas and the Shastras, and 
in the Svara is music. All the world is in the Svara; 
Svara is the spirit itself." 

The proper translation of the word Svara is tJic 
current of flic life-wave. It is that wavy motion 
which is the cause of the evolution of cosmic un- 
differentiated matter into the differentiated universe, 
and the involution of this into the primary state of 
non-differentiation, and so on, in and out, for ever 
and ever. Whence does this motion come? This 
motion is the spirit itself. The word Atma used in 
the book, itself carries the idea of eternal motion, 
coming as it does from the root ,-//, eternal motion; 
and it may be significantly remarked, that the root (it 
is connected with, is, in fact, simply another form of, 
the roots all, breath, and as, being. All these roots 



12 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

have for their original the sound produced by the 
breath of animals. In the Science of Breath the 
technical symbol for inspiration is sa, and for expira 
tion ha. It is easy to see how these symbols are con 
nected with the roots as and ah. The current of the 
life-wave spoken of above is technically called Hansa- 
chasa, i.e., the motion of ha and sa. The word Hansa, 
which is taken to mean God, and is made so much of 
in many Sanskrit works, is only a symbolic represen 
tation of the two eternal processes of life ha and sa. 

The primeval current of the life-wave is, then, the 
same which in man assumes the form of inspiratory 
and expiratory motion of the lungs, and this is the 
all -pervading source of the evolution and the involu 
tion of the universe. 

The book goes on : 

"It is the Svara that has given form to the first 
accumulations of the divisions of the universe; the 
Svara causes involution and evolution; the Svara is 
God Himself, or more properly the Great Power (Ma- 
heshvara)." 

The Svara is the manifestation of the impression 
on matter of that power which in man is known to us 
as the power which knows itself. It is to be under 
stood that the action of this power never ceases. It 
is ever at work, and evolution and involution are the 
very necessity of its unchangeable existence. 

The Svara has two different states. The one is 
known on the physical plane of life as the sun-breath, 
the other as the moon-breath. I shall, however, at 



EVOLUTION*. ^ 

the present stage of evolution designate them as posi 
tive and negative respectively. The period during 
which this current comes back to the point whence it 
started is known as the day and night of Parabrahmaii. 
The positive or evolutionary period is known as the 
day of Parabrahmaii; the negative or involutionary 
portion is known as the night of Parabrahmaii. These 
nights and days follow each other without break. The 
sub-divisions of this period comprehend all the phases 
of existence, and it is therefore necessary to give here 
the scale of time according to the Hindu Shastras. 
I shall begin with a Truti as the least division of 

time. 

THE DIVISIONS OF TIME. 

26f Trutis = i Nimesha = v3 second. 

18 Nimeshas = i Kashtha = 3-V. seconds = 8 Vipalas. 

30 Kashtha=i Kala = i^ minutes = 4 Palas. 

30 Kala=i Mahurta = 48 minutes = 2 Gharis. 

30 Mahurtas=i day and night = 24 hours = 60 Gharis. 

30 flays and nights and odd hours = i Pitrya day and night = I 

month and odd hours. 

12 months = i Daiva day and night = i year = 365 days, 5!^, 30 , 31". 
365 Daiva days and nights =i Daiva year. 
4,800 Daiva years = i Satya Yuga. 
3,600 Daiva years = i Treta Yuga. 
2.400 Daiva years = i Dvapara Yuga. 
1,200 Daiva years = i Kali Yuga. 
12,000 Daiva years-- 1 Chatur Yuga (four Yugas). 
12,000 Chatur Yugas = i Daiva Yuga. 
2,000 Daiva Yugas = i day and night of Brahma. 
365 Brahmic days and nights ~i year of Brahma. 
71 Daiva Yugas = i Manvantara. 

12,000 Brahmic years i Chatur Yuga of Brahma and so on. 
200 Yugas of Brahma = i day and night of Parabrahmaii. 



14 NATURE S FINF.R FORCKS. 

These days and nights follow each other in eternal 
succession, and hence eternal evolution and involution. 

We have thus five sets of days and nights, i, Para- 
brahmic; 2, Brahmic; 3, Daiva; 4, Pitrya; 5, Manusha. 
A sixth is the Manvantaric day, and the Manvantaric 
night (Pralaya). 

The days and nights of Parabrahman follow each 
other without beginning or end. The night (the 
negative period) and the day (the positive period) 
both merge into the Sushumnfi (the conjunctive 
period) and emerge into the other. And so do the 
other days and nights. The days all through this 
division are sacred to the positive, the hotter current, 
and the nights to the negative, the cooler current. 
The impressions of names and forms, and the power 
of producing an impression, lie in the positive phase 
of existence. Receptivity is given birth to by the 
negative current. 

After being subjected to the negative phase of Para- 
brahman, Prakriti, which follows Parabrahman like a 
shadow, has been saturated with evolutionary recep 
tivity; as the hotter current sets in, changes are im 
printed upon it, and it appears in changed forms. 
The first imprint which the evolutionary positive cur 
rent leaves upon Prakriti is known as Akasha. Then, 
by and by, come into existence the remaining ethers. 
These modifications of Prakriti are the ethers of the 
first stage. 

Into these five ethers, as now constituting the ob 
jective plane, works on the current of the Great 



EVOLUTION. 



Breath. A further development takes place. Different 
centres come into existence. The Akusha throws them 
into a form which gives room f or locomotion. With 
the beginning o f the Vayu Tattva these elementary 
ethers are thrown into the form of spheres. This was 
the beginning ^formation, or what may also be called 
solidification. 

These spheres are our Brahmandas. In them the 
ethers assume a secondary development. The so-called 
division into five takes place. Well, but in this Brah- 
mic sphere in which the new ethers have good room 
for locomotion, the Tejas Tattva now comes into play, 
and then the Apas Tattva. Every tattvic quality is 
generated into, and preserved in, these spheres by 
these currents. With the Apas the formation is com 
plete. In process of time we have a centre and an 
atmosphere. This sphere is the self-conscious uni 
verse. 

In this sphere, according to the same process, a third 
ethereal state comes into existence. In the cooler 
atmosphere removed from the centre another class of 
centres comes into existence. These divide the Brah- 
mic state of matter into two different states. After 
this comes into existence another state of matter 
whose centres bear the name of Devas or suns. 

We have thus four states of subtle matter in tbe 
universe. 

1. Prana, life matter, with the Sun for centre. 

2. Marias, mental matter, with the Mann for centre. 

3. Yijnana, psychic matter, with Brahma for centre. 



1 6 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

4. Ananda, spiritual matter, with Parabrahman as 
the infinite substratum. 

Every higher state is positive with regard to the 
lower one, and every lower one is given birth to by a 
composition of the positive and negative phase of the 
higher. 

i. Prana has to do with three sets of days and 
nights in the above division of time. 

(a) Our ordinary days and nights. 

(b) The bright and dark half of the month which 
are called the Pitrya day and night. 

(c) The northern and southern halves of the year, 
the day and night of the Devas. 

These three nights acting upon earth-matter impart 
to it the receptivity of the cool, negative shady phase 
of life-matter. The respective days coming in after, 
these nights imprint themselves upon it. The earth 
herself thus becomes a living being, having a north 
pole, in which a central force draws the needle towards 
itself, and a south pole in which is centred a force 
which is, so to say, the shade of the north polar centre. 
It has also always the solar force centred in the eastern 
half, and the lunar the shade of the former centred 
in the western half. 

These centres come, in fact, into existence even 
before the earth is manifested on the gross plane. So 
also do the centres of other planets come into exist 
ence. As the sun presents himself to the Maim there 
come into existence two states of the matter in which 
the sun lives and moves the positive and the nega- 



EVOLUTION. 



tive. As the solar Prana, after having been for some 
time subjected to the negative shady state, is subjected 
in its revolutionary couise to the source of its posi 
tive phase, Mann, the figure of Manu is imprinted 
upon it. This Manu is, in fact, the universal mind, 
and all the planets with their inhabitants are the 
phases of his existence. Of this, however, more here 
after. At present we see that earth-life or Terrestrial 
Prana has four centres of force. 

The positive phase acting upon it when it has been 
cooled by the negative current imprints itself upon it, 
and earth-life in various forms comes into existence. 
The essays on Prana will explain this more clearly. 

2. Manas has to do with Manu. The suns revolve 
round these centres with the whole of their atmo 
spheres of Prana. This system gives birth to the I^okas 
or spheres of life, of which the planets are one class. 

These Lokas have been enumerated by Vyasa in 
his commentary on the Yogas/uisfra (Pada iii. Sutra 26). 

The aphorism runs thus : 

"By meditation upon the sun is obtained a know 
ledge of the physical creation." 

On this says the revered commentator: 

"There are seven Lokas (spheres of existence)." 

1. Bhurloka extends to the Meru. 

2. Antarikshaloka extends from the surface of the 
Meru to the Dhruva, the pole-star, and contains the 
planets, the Nakshatras, and the stars. 

3. Svarloka lies beyond, is fivefold and sacred to 
Mahendra. 



18 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

4. Maharloka, sacred to Prajapati. 

5. Janaloka, sacred to Brahma. 

6. Taparloka, sacred to Brahma. 

7. Satyaloka, sacred to Brahma. 

It is not my purpose to try at present to explain the 
meaning of these Lokas. It is sufficient for my present 
purpose to say that the planets, the stars, the lunar 
mansions are all impressions of Mann, just as the 
organisms of the earth are impressions of the sun. 
The solar Prana is prepared for this impression during 
the Manvantaric night. 

Similarly Vijriana has to do with the nights and 
days of Brahma, and Ananda with those of Para- 
brahman. 

It will thus be seen that the whole process of crea 
tion, on whatever plane of life, is performed most) 
naturally by the five Tattvas in their double modifica 
tions, the positive and negative. There is nothing in 
the universe which the Universal Tattvic Law of/ 
Breath does not comprehend. 

After this very brief exposition of the theory of 
tattvic evolution comes a series of Essays, taking up 
all the subtle states of matter one by one, and describ 
ing more in detail the working of the tattvic law in 
those planes, and also the manifestations of these 
planes of life in humanity. 



III. 

THE MUTUAL RELATION OF THE TATTVAS 
AND OE THE PRINCIPLES. 

Tin? Akasha is the most important of all the 
Tattvas. It must, as a matter of course, precede and 
follow every change of state on every plane of life. 
Without this there can be no manifestation or cessa 
tion of forms. // is out of Akasha that every form 
comes, and it is in Akasha that every form lives. The 
Akasha is full of forms in their potential state. It 
intervenes between every two of the five Tattvas, and 
between every two of the five principles. 

The evolution of the Tattvas is always part of the 
evolution of a certain definite form. Thus the mani 
festation of the primary Tattvas is with the definite 
aim of giving- what we may call a body, a prakritie 
form, to the Ishvara. In the bosom of the Infinite 
Parabrahman there are hidden innumerable such 
centres. One centre takes under its influence a certain 
portion of the Infinite, and there we find first of all 
coming into existence the Akasha Tattva. The ex 
tent of this Akasha limits the extent of the universe, 
and out of it the Ishvara is to come. To this end 
out of this Akasha comes the Vayu Tattva. This 



20 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

pervades the whole universe and has a certain centre 
which serves to keep the whole expanse together, aiid 
as one whole separate from other universes (Brah- 
mandas). 

It has been mentioned, and further on will be more 
clearly explained, that every Tattva has a positive and 
a negative phase. It is also evident on the analogy of 
the sun that places more distant from the centre are 
always negative to those which are nearer. We might 
say that they are cooler than these, as it will be seen 
further on that heat is not peculiar to the sun only, 
but that all the higher centres have a greater amount 
of heat than even the sun itself. 

Well, then, in this Brahmic sphere of Vayu, except 
for some space near the Parabrahmic Akasha, ever) 
atom of the Vayu is reacted upon by an opposite force. 
The more distant and therefore the cooler one reacts 
upon the nearer and therefore the hotter. The equal 
and opposite vibrations of the same force cancel each 
other, and both together pass into the akashic state. 
Thus, while some of this space remains filled up by 
the Brahmic Vayu on account of the constant outflow 
of this Tattva from the Parabrahmic Akasha, the 
remainder is rapidly turned into Akasha. This 
Akasha is the mother of the Brahmic Agni Tattva. 
The Agni Tattva working similarly gives birth 
through another Akasha to the Apas, and this simi 
larly to the Prithivi. This Brahmic Prithivi thus 
contains the qualities of all the preceding Tattvas 
besides a fifth one of its own. 



RELATION OF TATTVAS AND PRINCIPLES. 21 

The first stage of the universe, the ocean of psychic 
matter, has now come into existence in its entirety. 
This matter is, of course, very, very fine, and there is 
absolutely no grossness in it as compared with the 
matter of the fifth plane. In this ocean shines the 
intelligence of Ishvara, and this ocean, with every 
thing that might be manifest in it, is the self-conscious 
universe. 

In this psychic ocean, as before, the more distant 
atoms are negative to the nearer ones. Hence, except 
a certain space which remains filled with the psychic 
Prithivi on account of the constant supply of this 
element from above, the rest begins to change into 
an Akasha. This second Akasha is full of what are 
called Maims in their potential state. The Maims are 
so many groups of certain mental forms, the ideas of 
the various genera and species of life to appear further 
on. We have to do with one of these. 

Impelled by the evolutionary current of the Great 
Breath, Manu comes out of this Akasha, in the same 
way as Brahma did out of the Parabrahmic Akasha. 
First and uppermost in the mental sphere is the Vayu, 
and then in regular order the Tejas, the Apas, and the 
Prithivi. This mental matter follows the same laws, 
and similarly begins to pass into the third akashic state, 
which is full of innumerable suns. They come out in 
the same way, and begin to work on a similar plan, 
which will be better understood here than higher up. 

Everybody can here test for himself that the more 
distant portions of the solar system are cooler than 



22 NATURES FINER FORCES. 

the nearer ones. Every little atom of Prana is com 
paratively cooler than the next one towards the sun 
from itself. Hence equal and opposite vibrations 
cancel each other. Leaving, therefore, a certain space 
near the sun as always filled up with the Tattvas of 
Prana, which are there being constantly supplied from 
the sun, the rest of the Prana passes into the akashic 
state. 

It might be noted down here that the whole of this 
Prana is made np of innumerable little points. Of 
these points I shall in future speak as Trutis, and 
might say here that it is these Trutis which appear on 
the terrestrial plane as atoms (Ann or Paramanu). 
They might be spoken of as solar atoms. These 
solar atoms are of various classes according to the 
prevalence of one or more of the constituent Tattvas. 

Every point of Prana is a perfect picture of the 
whole ocean. Every other point is represented in 
every point. Every atom has, therefore, for its con 
stituents, all the four Tattvas, in varying proportions 
according to its position in respect of others. The 
different classes of these solar atoms appear on the 
terrestrial plane as the various elements of chemistry. 

The spectrum of every terrestrial element reveals 
the colour or colours of the prevalent Tattva or 
Tattvas of a solar atom of that substance. The 
greater the heat to which any substance is subjected 
the nearer does the element approach its solar state. 
Heat destroys for the time being the terrestrial coat 
ings of the solar atoms. 



RKI.ATIUX Ol- TATTVAS AM) rKKXCI I l.ho. 23 

The spectrum of sodium thus shows the presence 
of the yellow Prithivi, that of lithium, the red Agni, 
and the yellow Prithivi, that of caesium, the red Agni, 
tlie green admixture, the yellow Prithivi, and the blue 
Vayu. Rubidium shows red, orange, yellow, green 
and blue, i.e., the Agni, Prithivi and Agni, Prithivi, 
Vayu and Prithivi, and Vayu. These classes of solar 
atoms which all together make up the wide ex 
panse of the solar Pra.ua, pass into the akashic state. 
While the sun keeps up a constant supply of these 
atoms, those that are passing into the akashic state- 
pass on the other side into the planetary Vayu. Cer 
tain measured portions of the solar Akasha naturally 
separate themselves from others, according to the 
differing creation which is to appear in those portions. 
These portions of Akasha are called Lokas. The 
earth itself is a Loka called the Bhurloka. I shall 
take up the earth for further illustration of the 
law. 

That portion of the solar Akasha which is the 
immediate mother of the earth, first gives birth to 
the terrestrial Vayu. Every element is now in the 
state of the Vayu Tattva, which ma}- now be called 
gaseous. The Vayu Tattva is spherical in shape, and 
thus the gaseous planet bears similar outlines. The 
centre of this gaseous sphere keeps together round 
itself the whole expanse of gas. As soon as this 
gaseous sphere comes into existence, it is subjected to 
the following influences among others. 

i. The superposed influence of the solar heat. 



24 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

2. The internal influence of the more distant atoms 
on the nearer ones and vice versa. 

The first influence has a double effect upon the 
gaseous sphere. It imparts more heat to the nearer 
hemisphere than to the more distant one. The super 
ficial air of the nearer hemisphere having contracted 
a certain amount of solar energy, rises towards the 
sun. Cooler air from below takes its place. But 
where does the superficial air go? It cannot pass 
beyond the limit of the terrestrial sphere, which is 
surrounded by the solar Akaslia, through which comes 
a supply from the solar Prana. It, therefore, begins 
to move in a circle, and thus a rotatory motion is 
established in the sphere. This is the origin of the 
earth s rotation upon its axis. 

Again, as a certain amount of the solar energy is 
imparted to the gaseous terrestrial sphere, the impulse 
of the upward motion reaches the centre itself. That 
centre itself, therefore, and along with it the whole 
sphere, moves towards the sun. It cannot, however, 
go on in this direction, for a nearer approach would 
destroy that balance of forces which gives the earth 
its peculiarities. A Loka which is nearer to the sun 
than our planet cannot have the same conditions of 
life. Hence, while the sun draws the earth towards 
himself, those laws of life which have given it a con 
stitution, by which for ages it must roll on, keep it in 
the sphere they have assigned to it. Two forces thus 
come into existence. Drawn by one the earth would 
go towards the sun; checked by the other it must 



RELATION Ol< TATTVAS AND PRINCIPLES. 25 

remain where it is. These are the centrifugal and 
the centripetal forces, and their action results in 
o-ivino- the earth its annual revolution. 

o o 

Secondly, the internal action of the gaseous atoms 
upon each other ends in the change of the whole 
gaseous sphere, except the upper portion, into the 
akashic state. This akashic state gives birth to the 
igneous (pertaining to the Agni Tattva) state of ter 
restrial matter. This changes similarly into the Apas, 
and this again into the Prithivi. 

The same process obtains in the changes of matter 
with which we are now familiar. An example will 
better illustrate the whole law. 

Take ice. This is solid, or what the Science of 
Breath would call in the state of Prithivi. One 
quality of the Prithivi Tattva, the reader will remem 
ber, is cohesive resistance. Let us apply heat to this 
ice. This heat as it passes into the ice is indicated by 
the thermometer. When the temperature rises to 78 
the ice changes its state. But the thermometer no 
longer indicates the same amount of heat; 78 of heat 
have become latent. 

Let us now apply 536" of heat to a pound of boiling 
water. As is generally known, this great quantity of 
heat becomes latent while the water passes into the 
gaseous state. 

Now, let us follow the reverse process. To gaseous 
water let us apply a certain amount of cold. When 
this cold becomes sufficient to entirely counteract the 
heat which keeps it in the gaseous state, the vapour 



26 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

passes into the akashic state, and from thence into 
the Tejas state. It is not necessary that the whole of 
the vapour should at once pass into the next state. 
The change is gradual. As the cold is gradually 
passing into the vapour, the Tejas modification is 
gradually appearing out of, and through the interven 
tion of, the Akasha, into which it had passed during 
latency. This is being indicated on the thermometer. 
When the whole has passed into the igneous state, 
and the thermometer has indicated 536, the second 
Akasha comes into existence. Out of this second 
Akasha comes the liquid state at the same tempera 
ture, the whole heat having again passed into the 
akashic state, and therefore is no longer indicated by 
the thermometer. 

When cold is applied to this liquid, heat again 
begins to come out, and when it reaches 78", this heat 
having come out of and through the Akasha into 
which it had passed, the whole liquid has passed 
into the igneous state. Here it again begins to pass 
into the akashic state. The thermometer begins to 
fall down, and out of this Akasha begins to come the 
Prithivi state of water ice. 

Thus we see that the heat which is given out by the 
influence of cold passes into the akashic state, which 
becomes the substratum of a higher phase, and the 
heat which is absorbed passes into another akashic state, 
which becomes the substratum of a lower phase. 

It is in this way that the terrestrial gaseous sphere 
changes into its present state. The experiment de- 



RELATION OF TATTVAS AND PRINCIPLES. 2J 

scribed above points out many important truths about 
the relation of these Tattvas to each other. 

First of all it explains that very important assertion 
of the Science of Breath which says that every suc 
ceeding tattvic state has the qualities of all the fore 
going tattvic states. Thus we see that as the gaseous 
state of water is being acted upon by cold, the latent 
heat of steam is being cancelled and passing into the 
akashic state. This cannot but be the case, since 
equal and opposite vibrations of the same force always 
cancel each other, and the result is the Akasha. Out 
of this comes the Tejas state of matter. This is that 
state in which the latent heat of steam becomes 
patent. It will be observed this state has no perma 
nence. The Tejas form of water, as indeed of any 
other substance, cannot exist for any length of time, 
because the major part of terrestrial matter is in the 
lower and therefore more negative states of Apas and 
Prithivi, and whenever for an}- cause any substance 
passes into the Tejas state, the surrounding objects 
begin at once to react upon it with such strength as at 
once to force it into the next akashic state. Those 
things which now live in the normal state of the 
Apas or the Prithivi find it quite against the laws of 
their existence to remain, except under external in 
fluence, in the Tejas (igneous) state. Thus an atom 
of gaseous water before passing into the liquid state 
has already remained in the three states, the akashic, 
the gaseous, and the Tejas. It must, therefore, have 
all the qualities of the three Tattvas, and so it no 



28 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

doubt has. Cohesive resistance is only wanted, and 
that is the quality of the Prithivi Tattva. 

Now when this atom of liquid water passes into the 
icy state, what do we see? All the states which have 
preceded must again show themselves. Cold will 
cancel the latent heat of the liquid state, and the 
akashic state will come out. Out of this akashic 
state is sure to come the gaseous state. This gaseous 
(Vayava) state is evidenced by the gyrations and other 
motions which are set up in the body of the liquid by 
the mere application of the cold. The motion, how 
ever, is not of very long duration, and as they are 
ceasing (passing into the akashic state) the Tejas state 
is coming out. This, too, however, is not of long 
duration, and as this is passing into the akashic state, 
the ice is coming into existence. 

It will be easy to see that all the four states of terres 
trial matter exist in our sphere. The gaseous (Vayava) 
is there in what we now call the atmosphere; the 
igneous (Tejas) is the normal temperature of earth 
life; the liquid (Apas) is the ocean; the solid (Par- 
thiva) is the terra firma. None of these states, how 
ever, exists quite isolated from the other. Each is 
constantly invading the domain of the other, and thus 
it is difficult to find any portion of space filled up only 
with matter in one state. The two adjacent Tattvas 
are found intermixed with each other to a greater 
extent than those that are removed from each other 
by an intermediate state. Thus Prithivi will be found 
mixed up to a greater extent with water than with 



RELATION OF TATTVAS AND PRINCIPLES. 29 

Ao-ni and Vayu, Apas with Agni than with Vayu, and 
Vayu with Agni more than with any othtr. It would 
thus appear from the above, according to the science 
of Tattvas, that the flame and other luminous bodies 
on earth are not in the terrestrial Tejas (igneous) state. 
They are in or near the solar state of matter. 



IV. 

PRANA. 

THE CENTRES OF PRANA; THE NADIS; THE TATTVIC 
CENTRES OF LIFE; THE ORDINARY CHANGE OF 
BREATH. 

PRANA, as already expressed, is that state of tattvic 
matter which surrounds the sun, and in which move 
the earth and other planets. It is the next state above 
terrestrial matter. The terrestrial sphere is separated 
from the solar Prana by an Akasha. This Akasha is 
the immediate mother of the terrestrial Vayu whose 
native colour is blue. It is on this account that the 
sky looks blue. 

Although at this point in the heavens, the Prana 
changes into the Akasha, which gives birth to the 
terrestrial Vayu, the rays of the sun which fall on the 
sphere from without are not stopped on their inward 
journey. They are refracted, but move onwards into 
the terrestrial sphere all the same. Through these 
rays the ocean of Prana, which surrounds our sphere, 
exerts upon it an organizing influence. 

The terrestrial Prana the earth-life which appears 
in the shape of all the living organisms of our planet 
is, as a whole, nothmg more than a modification of 
the solar Prana. 



PR AN A. 31 

As the earth moves round her own axis and round 
the sun, twofold centres are developed in the terres 
trial Prana. During the diurnal rotation every plaee, 
as it is subjected to the direct influence of the sun, 
sends forth the positive life-current from tJic cast to the 
wsf. During the night the same place sends forth 
the negative current. 

In the annual course the positive current travels 
from I/it nortli to the south during the six months of 
summer the day of the Devas, and the negative 
during the remaining six months the night of the 
Devas. 

The north and east are thus sacred to the positive 
current; the opposite quarters to the negative current. 
The sun is the lord of the positive current, the moon 
that of the negative, because the negative solar Prana 
comes during the night to the earth from the moon. 

The terrestrial Prana is thus an ethereal being with 
double centres of work. The first is the northern, the 
second the southern. The two halves of these centres 
are the eastern and western centres. During the six 
months of summer the current of life runs from the 
north to the south, and during the months of winter 
the negative current goes the other way. 

With every month, with every day, with every 
Nimesha, this current completes a minor course, and 
while the current continues in its course the diurnal 
rotation gives it an eastern or a western direction. 
The northern current runs during the day of man 
from east to west, during the night from west to 



32 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

east. The directions of the other current are respec 
tively opposite to the above. So practically there are 
only two directions the eastern and western. The 
difference of the northern and southern currents is 
not practically felt in terrestrial life. These two cur 
rents produce in the terrestrial Prana two distinguish 
able modifications of the composing ethers. The rays 
of either of these ethereal modifications, proceeding 
from their different centres, run into each other the 
one giving life, strength, form, and various qualities 
to the other. Along the rays emerging from the 
northern centre, run the currents of the positive Prana ; 
along those emerging from the southern, the currents 
of the negative Prana. The eastern and western 
channels of these currents are respectively called 
Pingala and Ida, two of the celebrated Nadis of the 
Tantrists. It will be better to discuss the other bear 
ings of Prana when we have localized it in the human 
body. 

The inmiencc of this terrestrial Prana develops two 
centres of action in the gross matter which is to form 
a human body. Part of the matter gathers round the 
northern, and part round the southern centre. The 
northern centre develops into the brain; the southern 
into the heart. The general shape of the terrestrial 
Prana is something like an ellipse. In this the north 
ern focus is the brain ; the southern the heart. The 
column along which the positive matter gathers runs 
between these foci. 

The line in the middle is the place where the eastern 



PRAXA. 7,7, 

and western right and left divisions of the column 
join. The column is the medulla ollotigata. The cen 
tral line is also Sushumna, the right and left divisions 
being the Pingala and Ida. The rays of Prana which 
diverge either way from these Nadis are only their 
ramifications, and constitute together with them the 
nervous system. 

The negative Prana gathers round the southern 
centre. This, too, takes a form similar to the former. 
The right and left divisions of this column are the 
right and left divisions of the heart. 

Each division has two principal branches, each of 
which subdivides into minor ramifications. The two 
openings either way are one a vein, and one an artery, 
the four opening into four chambers the four petals 
of the lotus of the heart. The right part of the heart 
again, with all its ramifications, is called Pingala, the 
left Ida, and the middle part Sushumna. 

There is reason to think, however, that the heart 
only is spoken of as the lotus, while the three fore 
going names are set apart for the nervous system. 
The current of Prana works forward and backward, 
in and out. The cause of this lies in the momentary 
changes of the being of Prana. As the year advances, 
every moment a change of state L\kes place in the 
terrestrial Prana, on account of the varying strengths 
of the solar and lunar currents. Thus, every moment 
is, strictly speaking, a new being of Prana. As Buddha 
says, all life is momentary. The moment which is the 
first to throw into matter the germ which will develop 



34 NATURE S FINRR FORCES. 

the two centres, is the first cause of organized life. If 
the succeeding moments are in their tattvic effect 
friendly to the first cause, the organism gains strength 
and develops; if not, the impulse is rendered fruitless. 
The general effect of these succeeding moments keeps 
up general life ; but the impulse of any one moment 
tends to pass off as the others come in. A system of 
forward and backward motion is thus established. 
One moment of Prana proceeding from the centre of 
action goes to the farthest ends of the gross vessels 
vascular and neural of the organism. The succeed 
ing moment gives it, however, the backward impulse. 
A few moments are taken in the completion of the 
forward impulse, and the determination of the back 
ward one. This period differs in different organisms. 
As the Prana runs forward, the lungs inspire; as it 
recedes, the process of expiration sets in. 

The Prana moves in the Pingala when it moves 
from the northern centre towards the east, and from 
the southern towards the west ; it moves in Ida when 
it moves from the northern centre towards the west, 
and from the southern centre towards the east. This 
means that in the former case the Prana moves from 
the brain, towards the right, through the heart, to the 
left and back to the brain; and from the heart to the 
left through the brain to the right back to the heart. 
In the latter the case is the reverse. To use other 
terms, in the former case the Prana moves from the 
nervous system to the right through the system of 
blood-vessels, to the left, and back again to the ner- 



PRAXA. ^c 

vous system ; or, from the system of blood-vessels, to 
the left, through the nervous system, to the right, and 
back again to the system of blood-vessels. These 
two currents co incide. In the latter the case is the 
reverse. The left part of the body containing both 
the nerves and the blood-vessels may be called Ida, 
the right, Pingala. The right and left bronchi form 
as well the parts respectively of Pingala and Ida, as 
any other parts of the right and left divisions of the 
body. But what is Sushumna? One of the names of 
Sushumna is Sandhi, the place where the two Ida 
and Pingala join. It is really that place from which 
the Prana may move either way right or left or, 
under certain conditions, both ways. It is that place 
which the Prana must pass when it changes from the 
right to the left and from the left to the right. It is, 
therefore, both the spinal canal and the cardiac canal. 
The spinal canal extends from the Brahmarandhra, 
the northern centre of Prana through the whole verte 
bral column (Brahmadanda). The cardiac canal ex 
tends from the southern centre midway between the 
two lobes of the heart. As the Prana moves from the 
spinal canal to the right hand towards the heart, the 
right lung works; the breath coming in and going 
out at the right nostril. When it reaches the southern 
canal, one cannot feel the breath from either nostril. 
As, however, it goes out of the cardiac canal to the 
left, the breath begins to come from the left nostril, 
and flows through that until the Prana again reaches 
the spinal canal. There, again, one ceases to feel the 



36 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

breath from either nostril. The effect of these two 
positions of Prana is identical npon the flow of breath, 
and, therefore, both the northern and southern canals 
are designated by Sushumna. If we may speak in 
this way, let us imagine that a plane passes midway 
between the spinal and cardiac canals. This plane 
will pass through the hollow of the Sushumna. But 
let it be understood that there is no such plane in 
reality. It will perhaps be more correct to say that as 
the rays of the positive Ida and Pingala spread both 
ways as nerves, and those of the negative similarly as 
blood-vessels, the rays of the Snshninna spread all 
over the body midway between the nerves and blood 
vessels the positive and negative Nadis. The follow 
ing is the description of Sushumna in the Science of 
Breath : 

"When the breath goes in and out, one moment by 
the left and the other by the right nostril, that too is 
Sushumna. When Prana is in that Nadi, the fires of 
death burn; this is called Vishuna. When it moves 
one moment in the right, and the other in the left, let 
it be called the unequal state (Vislmnabhava) ; when 
it moves through both at once, the wise have called it 
Vishuna." 

Again: 

" [It is Sushumna] at the time of the passing of the 
Prana from the Ida into the Pingala, or vice versa; and 
also of the change of one Tattva into another." 

Then the Sushumna has two other functions. It is 
called Vedo-Veda in one of its manifestations, and 



PR AN A. 07 

Sandhyasandhi in the other. As, however, the right 
and left directions of the cardiac Prana coincide with 
the left and right of the spinal current, there are some 
writers who dispense with the double Sushumna. 
According to them the spinal canal alone is the 
Sushumna. The Utttirngitd and the Shatachakra 
Nintpana are works which favour this view. This 
method of explanation takes away a good deal of 
difficulty. The highest recommendation of this view 
is its comparative simplicity. The right side current 
from the heart, and the left side current from the 
spine, may both, without any difficulty, be taken as 
the left side spinal currents, as may the remaining two 
currents be deemed spinal currents of the right side. 

One more consideration is in favour of this view. 
The nervous system represents the sun, the system of 
blood-vessels the moon. Hence the real force of life 
dwells in the nerves. The positive and negative the 
solar and lunar phases of life matter are only dif 
ferent phases of Prana, the solar matter. The more 
distant, and, for that reason, the cooler matter is nega 
tive to that which is nearer ami hotter. It is solar 
life which manifests itself in the various phases of the 
moon. To pass out of technicalities, it is nervous 
force which manifests itself in various forms, in the 
system of blood-vessels. The blood-vessels are only 
the receptacles of nervous force. Hence, in the ner 
vous system, the real life of the gross body are the 
true Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna. These are, in such 
a case, the spinal column, and the right and left sym- 



38 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

pathetics, with all their ramifications throughout the 
body. 

The development of the two centres is thus the 
first stage in the development of the foetus. The 
matter which gathers up under the influence of the 
northern centre is the spinal column; the matter 
which gathers up round the southern centre is the 
heart. The diurnal rotation divides these columns or 
canals into the right and left divisions. Then the 
correlative influence of these two centres upon each 
other develops an upper and lower division in each 
of these centres. This happens somewhat in the 
same way, and on the same principle, as a Leyden 
jar is charged with positive electricity by a negative 
rod. Each of these centres is thus divided into four 
parts : i , the right side positive ; 2, the left side positive ; 
3, the right side negative; 4, the left side negative. 
In the heart these four divisions are called the right 
and left auricles and ventricles. The Tantras style 
these four divisions the four petals of the cardiac 
lotus, and indicate them by various letters. The posi 
tive petals of the heart form the centre from which 
proceed the positive blood-vessels the arteries; the 
negative petals are the starting points of the negative 
blood-vessels the veins. This negative Prana is 
pregnant with ten forces: i, Prana; 2, Apana; 3, 
Sainana; 4, Vyana; 5, Udana; 6, Krikila; 7, Naga; 
8, Devadatta; 9, Dhananjaya; TO, Kurma. These 
ten forces are called Vayus. The word Vayu is 
derived from the root va> to move, and means nothing 



PRAlsA. jy 

more than a ////;//: v; power. The Tantrists must not 
be understood to define it as a gas. Hence I shall 
speak in future of these Vayus as the forces or motive 
powers of Prana. These ten manifestations of Prana 
are by some reduced to the first five alone, holding 
that the remaining ones arc only modifications of the 
former, which are the all-important of the functions 
of Prana. This, however, is only a question of divi 
sion. From the left side positive petal the Prana 
gathers up into a Nadi, which ramifies within tin 
chest into the lungs, and again gathers up into a Nadi 
which opens into the right side negative petal. This 
entire course forms something like a circle (Chakra). 
This Nadi is called in modern science the pulmonary 
artery and vein. Two lungs come into existence by 
the alternate workings of the positive and negative 
Pranas of the eastern and western powers. 

Similarly from the right side positive petal branch 
several Nadis, which go both upwards and downwards 
in two directions the former under the influence of 
the northern, the latter under the influence of the 
southern powers. Both these Nadis open after a cir 
cular march throughout the upper and lower portions 
of the body into the left side negative petal. 

Between the left side positive and the right side 
negative petal is one Chakra (disc). This Chakra 
comprises the pulmonary artery, the lungs and the 
pulmonary vein. The chest gives room to this 
Chakra, which is positive with respect to the lower 
portions of the body, where run the ramifications of 



4o NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

the lower Cliakra, which latter joins the right side 
positive and the left side negative petals. 

In the above-mentioned Chakra (in the cavity of 
the chest) is the seat of Prana, the first and most 
important of the ten manifestations. Inspiration and 
expiration being a true index to the changes of Prana, 
the pulmonary manifestations thereof have the same 
name. With the changes of Prana we have a corres 
ponding change in the other functions of life. The 
lower negative Chakra contains the principal seats of 
some of the other manifestations of life. This Apana 
is located in the long intestine; Samana in the navel; 
and so on. Udana is located in the throat; Vyana all 
over the body. Udana causes belching; Kurma causes 
the eyes to shut and open; Krikila in the stomach 
causes hunger. In short, proceeding from the four 
petals of the heart we have an entire network of these 
blood-vessels. There are two sets of these blood 
vessels lying side by side in every part of the body, con 
nected by innumerable little channels the capillaries. 

We read in the Prashnopanishad : 

" From the heart [ramify the] Nadis. Of these there 
are 101 principal ones [Pradhana Nadis]. Each of these 
branches into* 100; each of these again into 72,000." 

Thus, there are 10,100 branch Nadis and 727,200,000 
still smaller ones, or what are called Twig-Nadis. The 
terminology is imitated from a tree. The root is in 
the heart. From this proceeds various stems. These 
ramify into branch-vessels and these again into twig- 
vessels; all these Nadis put together are 727,210,201. 



PRAXA. 41 

Now, ol these the Sushumna is the one; the rest 
are divided half and half over the two halves of the 
body. So we read in the Kathopanishad (6th Valli, 
1 6th Mantra): 

"A hundred and one Nadis are connected with the 
heart. Of these one passes out into the head. Going 
out by that one becomes immortal. The others be 
come the cause in sending the life principle out of 
various other states." 

This one that goes to the head, remarks the com 
mentator, is the Sushumna. The Sushumna then is 
that Nadi, whose nervous substratum or reservoir of 
force is the spine. Of the remaining principal Nadis, 
the Ida is the reservoir of the life force which works 
in the left part of the body, having fifty principal 
Nadis. So also has the right part of the body fifty 
principal Nadis. These go on dividing as above. 
The Nadis of the third degree become so minute as 
to be only visible by a microscope. The ramifications 
of the Sushumna all over the body serve during life 
to carry the Prana from the positive to the negative 
portions of the body, and vice versa. In the case of 
the blood these are the modern capillaries. 

The Vedantins, of course, take the heart to be the 
starting point of this ramification. The Yogis, how 
ever, proceed from the navel. Thus in the book on 
the Science of Breath we read: 

"From the root in the navel proceed 72,000 Nadis 
spreading all over the body. There sleeps the goddess 
Kundalini like a serpent. From this centre [the 



42 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

navel] ten Nadis go upwards, ten downwards, and 
two and two crookedly." 

The number 72,000 is the result of their own peculiar 
reckoning. It matters little which division we adopt 
if we understand the truth of the case. 

Along these Nadis run the various forces which form 
and keep up the physiological man. These channels 
gather up into various parts of the body as centres of 
the various manifestations of Prana. It is like water 
falling from a hill, gathering into various lakes, each 
lake letting out several streams. These centres are: 

i, hand power centres; 2, foot power centres; 3, 
speech power centres; 4, excretive power centres; 5, 
generative power centres; 6, digestive and absorbing 
power centres; 7, breathing power centres; 8, the 
five sense power centres. 

Those of these Nadis which proceed to the outlets 
of the body perform the most important functions of 
the body, and they are hence said to be the ten prin 
cipal ones in the whole system. These are: 

1. Gandhari goes to the left eye. 

2. Hastijihva goes to the right eye. 

3. Piisha goes to the right ear. 

4. Yashasvini goes to the left ear. 

5. Alambusha, or Alammukha (as it is variously 
spelt in one MS.), goes to the mouth. This evidently 
is the alimentary canal. 

6. Kuhu pr>es to the generative organs. 

7. Shankhini goes to the excretive organs. 

8. Ida leads to the left nostril of the nose. 



PRANA. 



43 



9. Pi n gala leads to the right nostril. It appears that 
these names are given to these local Nadis, for the 
same reason that the pulmonary manifestation of Prana 
is known by the same name. 

10. Sushumna has already been explained in its 
various phases and manifestations. 

There are two more outlets of the body, which re 
ceive their natural development in the female the 
breasts. It is quite possible that the Nadi Damini, of 
which no specific mention has been made, might go 
to one of these. Whatever it be, the principle of the 
division and classification is clear, and this is some 
thing actually gained. 



Left Side. 




Ri- ht Side. 



Centres of moral and intellectual powers also exist 
111 the system. Thus we read in the Vhhrainopani 
(the above figure will serve to illustrate the translation): 



44 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

1. "While the minds rests in the eastern portion [or 
petal], which is white in colour, then it is inclined 
towards patience, generosity, and reverence. 

2. "While the mind rests in the south-eastern 
portion, which is red in colour, then it is inclined 
towards sleep, torpor, and evil inclination. 

3. "While the mind rests in the southern portion, 
which is black in colour, then it is inclined towards 
anger, melancholy, and bad tendencies. 

4. "While the mind rests in the south-western 
portion, which is blue in colour, then it is inclined 
towards jealousy and cunning. 

5. "While the mind rests in the western portion, 
which is brown in colour, then it is inclined towards 
smiles, amorousness, and jocoseness. 

6. "While the mind rests in the north-western 
portion, which is indigo in colour, then it is inclined 
towards anxiety, restless dissatisfaction, and apathy. 

7. "While the mind rests in the northern portion, 
which is yellow in colour, then it is inclined towards 
love and enjoyment and adornment. 

8. "While the mind rests in the north-eastern 
portion, which is white in colour, then it is inclined 
towards pity, forgiveness, reflection and religion. 

9. "While the mind rests in the Sandhis [conjunc 
tions] of these portions, then arise disease and confusion 
in body and home, and the mind inclines towards the 
three humours. 

10. "While the mind rests in the middle portion, 
which is violet in colour, then consciousness goes 



PRANA. 45 

beyond the qualities [the three qualities of Maya], and 
it inclines towards intelligence." 

When anyone of these centres is in action, the mind 
is conscious of the same kind of feeling, and inclines 
towards it. Mesmeric passes serve only to excite these 
centres. 

These centres are located in the head as well as in 
the chest, and also in the abdominal region and the 
loins, etc. 

It is these centres, together with the heart itself, 
that bear the name of Pad mas, or Kamalas (lotuses). 
Some of these are large, some small, very small. A 
tantrik lotus is of the type of a vegetable organism, 
a root with various branches. These centres are the 
reservoirs of various powers, and hence the roots of 
the Padmas; the Nadis ramifying from these centres 
are their various branches. 

The nervous plexuses of the modern anatomists 
coincide with these centres. From what has been said 
above it will appear that the centres are constituted 
by blood-vessels. But the only difference between the 
nerves and the blood-vessels is the difference between 
the vehicles of the positive and negative Pranas. The 
nerves are the positive, the blood-vessels the negative 
system of the body. Wherever there arc nerves there 
are corresponding blood-vessels. Both of them are 
indiscriminately called Nadis. One set has for its 
centre the lotus of the heart, the other the thousand- 
petalled lotus of the brain. The system of blood 
vessels is an exact picture of the nervous system, is, 



46 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

in fact, only its shadow. Like the heart the brain has 
its upper and lower divisions the cerebrum and the 
cerebellum and, as well, its right and left divisions. 
The nerves going to both sides of the body and coming 
back from thence, together with those going to the 
upper and lower portions, correspond to the four petals 
of the heart. This system too, then, has as many cen 
tres of energy as the former. Both these centres coin 
cide in position. They are, in fact, the same the ner 
vous plexuses and ganglia of modern anatomy. Thus, 
in my opinion, the tantrik Padmas are not only the 
centres of nervous power of the positive northern Prana, 
but as well and necessarily of the negative Prana. 

The translation of the Science of Breath which is 
now presented to the reader has two sections enume 
rating the various actions which are to be done during 
the flow of the positive or the negative breath. They 
show nothing more than what can in some cases be 
very easily verified, that certain actions are better done 
by positive energy, and others by negative energy. 
The taking in of chemicals and their changes are 
actions, as well as any others. Some of the chemicals 
are better assimilated by the negative,* others by the 
positive! Prana. Some of our sensations produce 
more lasting effects upon the negative, others upon the 
positive Prana. 

Prana has now arranged the gross matter in the 
womb into the nervous and blood-vessel systems. The 

* For example, milk and other Fatty substances, 
t Such food as is digested in the stomach. 



PRAXA. ,~ 

4/ 

Prana, as has been .seen, is made of the five Tattvas, 
;uid the Nadis serve only as lines for tattvic currents 
to run on. The centres of power noticed above are 
centres of tattvic power. The tattvic centres in the 
right part of the body are solar, those in the left, 
lunar. Both these solar and lunar centres are of five 
descriptions. Their kind is determined by what are 
railed the nervous ganglia. The semi-lunar ganglia 
are the reservoirs of the Apas Tattva. Similarly we 
have the reservoirs of the other forces. J Vom these 
central reservoirs the tattvic currents run over the same 
Hues, and do the various actions allotted to them in 
physiological economy. 

Everything in the human body which has more or 
less of cohesive resistance is made up of the Prithivi 
Tattva. But in this the various Tattvas work im 
printing differing qualities upon the various parts of 
the body. 

The Vayu Tattva, among others, performs the func 
tions of giving birth to, and nourishing the skin; the 
positive gives us the positive, and the negative the 
negative skin. Each of these has five layers: 

i, Pure Vayu; 2, Vayu-Agni; 3, Vayu-Prithivi; 4, 
Vayu-Apas; 5, Yayu-Akasha. These five 
classes of cells have the following figures: oo >0 

1. Pure Vavu. This is the complete 
sphere of the Vayu. 

2. Vayu-Agni. The triangle is super 
posed over the sphere, and the cells have something 
like the following shape. 



48 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 



3. Vayu-Prithivi. This is the result of the super 
position of the quadrangular Prit- ^^^ ^^^ ^^^ 
hivi over the spherical Vayu. Qj (jj (jj 

4. Vayu-Apas. Something like 

an ellipse, the semi-moon placed above the sphere. 

O O O O O O 
.OOOOOO 

5. Vayu-Akasha. The sphere flattened by the super 

position of the circle and dotted. 

^l^} (vfy ($ (y A microscopic examination of 
/7T\ r\ ^r\ s^\ the skin will show that its cells 
^" ^^ ^^ ^^ have this appearance. 

Similarly are bone, muscle and fat given birth to by 
the Prithivi, the Agni and the Apas. Akasha appears 
in various positions. Wherever there is any room for 
anv substance there is Akasha. The blood is a mix 
ture of nutritive substances kept in the fluidic state by 
the Apas Tattva of Prana. 

It is thus seen that while terrestrial Prana is an 
exact manifestation of the solar Prana, the human 
manifestation is an exact expression of cither. The 
microcosm is an exact picture of the macrocosm. The 
four petals of the lotus of the heart branch really into 
twelve Nadis (k, kh, g, gh, n-, cli, chh, j, jh, ri, t, th). 
Similarly the brain has twelve pairs of nerves. These 



PRANA. 



are the twelve signs of the Zodiac, both in their 
positive and negative phases. In every sign the sun 
rises thirty-one times. We have, therefore, thirty-one 
pairs of nerves. Instead of pairs we speak in the 
language of the Tantras of Chakras (discs or circles) 
Wherever the thirty-one spinal Chakras connected 
with the twelve pairs of nerves in the brain, pass 
throughout the body, we have running side by side 
the blood-vessels proceeding from the twelve Nadis of 
the heart. The only difference between the spinal 
and cardiac Chakras is that the former lie crosswise, 
while the latter lie lengthwise in the body. Thr 
sympathetic chords consist of lines of tattvic centres 
-the Padmas or Kamalas. These centres lie in all 
the thirty-one Chakras noticed above. Thus from the 
two centres of action the brain and the heart the 
signs of the Zodiac in their positive and negative 
aspects a system of Nadis branches off. The Nadis 
from either centre run into one another so much that 
one set is found always side by side with the other. 
The thirty-one Chakras of the spine are brought into 
existence, and correspond with the thirty-one sunrises, 
and those of the heart with the thirty-one sunsets of 
the zodiacal signs. In these Chakras are various tattvic 
centres; one set is positive, the other is negative. The 
former owe allegiance to the brain, with which they are 
connected by the sympathetic chords; the latter owe 
allegiance to the heart, with which they have a various 
connection. This double system is on the right side 
called Pingala, on the left Ida. The ganglia of the Apas 



^o NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

centres are semi-lunar, those of the Tejas, the Vayu, 
the Prithivi, and the Akasha respectively triangular, 
spherical, quadrangular, and circular. Those of the 
composite Tattvas have composite figures. Each tattvic 
centre has ganglia of all the Tattvas surrounding it. 

In this system of Nadis moves the Prana. As the 

sun passes into the sign of Aries in the macrocosm, 

the Prana passes into the corresponding Nadis (nerves) 

of the brain. Thence it descends every day towards 

the spine. With the rise of the sun it descends into 

the first spinal Chakra towards the right. It thus 

passes into the Piiigala. Along the nerves of the 

right side it moves, passing at the same time little by 

little into the blood-vessels. Up to the noon of every 

day the strength of this Prana is greater in the nervous 

than in the venous Chakras. At noon they become of 

equal strength. In the evening (with sunset), the 

Prana with its entire strength has passed into the 

blood-vessels. Thence it gathers up into the heart, 

the negative southern centre. It then spreads into 

the left side blood-vessels, passing gradually into the 

nerves. At midnight the strength is equalixed; in 

the morning (Pratahsandhya) the Prana is just in the 

spine ; from thence it begins to travel along the second 

Chakra (disc, circle). This is the course of the solar 

current of Prana> The moon gives birth to other and 

minor currents. The moon moves some twelve times 

more than the sun. Therefore while the sun passes 

over one Chakra (/>., during sixty Gharis day and 

night), the moon passes over twelve odd Chakras. 



PR AX A. 



Therefore we have twelve odd changes of Prana during 
twenty-four hours. Suppose the moon too begins in 
Aries, she begins like the sun in the first Chakra, and 
takes 58111. 43. in reaching from the spine to the heart, 
and as many minutes from the heart back to the spine! 
Both these Pranas move in their respective courses 
along ^ the tattvic centres above spoken of. Hither of 
them is present at any one time all over the same class 
of tattvic centres, in any one part of the body. It 
manifests itself first in the Vayu centres, then in the 
Tejas, thirdly in the Prithivi, and fourthly in the Apas 
centres. Akasha comes after each, and immediately 
precedes the Sushumna. As the lunar current passes 
from the spine towards the right, the breath comes out 
of the right nostril, and as long as the current of 
Prana remains in the back part of the body, the 
Tattvas change from the Yayu to the Apas. As the 
current passes into the front part of the right half, the 
Tattvas change back from the Apas to the Yayu. As 
the Prana passes into the heart, the breath is not felt 
at all passing out at the nose. As it proceeds from the 
heart to the left, the breath begins to flow out at the 
left nostril, and as long as it is in the front part of the 
body, the Tattvas change from the Vayu to the Apas. 
They change back again as before, until the Prana 
reaches the spine, when we have the Akasha of 
Sushumna. Such is the even change of Prana which 
we have in the state of perfect health. The impulse 
that has been given to the localized Prana by the 
sun and moon forces which give active power and 



52 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

existence to Prana its prototype, makes it work in 
the same way for ever and ever. The working of the 
human free will and certain other forces change the 
nature of the local Prana, and individualize it in such 
a way as to render it distinguishable from the universal 
terrestrial or ecliptical Pranas. With the varying 
nature of Prana, the order of the tattvic and the 
positive and negative currents may in various degrees 
be affected. Disease is the result of this variation. 
In fact, the flow of breath is the truest indication of 
the tattvic changes of the body. The balance of the 
positive and negative tattvic currents results in health, 
while the disturbance of their harmony produces 
disease. The science of the flow of breath is there 
fore of the highest importance to every man who 
values his own health, and that of his fellow creatures. 
It is at the same time the most important, the most 
useful and comprehensive, the easiest, and the most 
interesting branch of Yoga. It teaches us how to 
guide our will so as to effect desired changes in the 
order and nature of our positive and negative tattvic 
currents. This it does in the following way. All 
physical action is Prana in a certain state. Without 
Prana there is no action, and every action is the result 
of the differing harmonies of tattvic currents. Thus, 
motion in any one part of the body is the result of the 
activity of the Vayu centres in that part of the body. 
In the same way, whenever there is activity in the 
> Prithivi centres, we have a feeling of enjoyment and 
satisfaction. Similar are the causes of other sensations. 
^" 



53 

We find that while lying down we change sides 
when the breath passes out at that nostril. We there- ; 
!ore conclude that if we lie on either side the breath 
will flow out at the opposite nostril. Whenever there- 
lore, we see that it is desirable to change the negative 
conditions of our body to the positive, we resort to this 
expedient. An investigation into the physiological 
effects of Prana on the gross coil, and the counter effects 
of gross action upon Prana, will next be dealt with. 

The Pranamaya Kosha (coil of life) changes into 
three general states during day and night the wakino- 
the dreaming, the sleeping (Jagrat, Svapna, Stt- 
shupti). These three changes produce correspond 
ing changes in the Manomaya Kosha (the mental 
coil), and thence arises the consciousness of the changes 
life. The mind, in fact, lies behind the Prana. 
The strings (tattvic lines) of the former instrument 
are finer than those of the latter; that is, in the former 
we have a greater number of vibrations than in the 
latter during the same space of time. Their tensions 
stand to each other, however, in such a relation that 
vvith the vibrations of the one, the other of itself 
begins to vibrate. The changes give to the mind, 
therefore, a similar appearance, and consciousness of 
the phenomenon is caused. Of this, however, I will not 
treat at present. My present object is to describe all 
Those changes of Prana natural or induced which 
make up the sum-total of our worldly expcru-mv, ;iml 
which, during ages of evolution, have called UK- mind 
itself out of the slate of latency. These changes, as 



54 NATURE S FINKR FORCES. 

I have said, divide themselves into three general 
states the waking, the dreaming, and the sleeping. 
Waking is the positive, sleeping the negative state^of 
Prana; dreaming is the conjunction of the two (Su- 
shumna Sandhi). As has been stated, the solar current 
travels in a positive direction during the day, while 
we are awake. As night approaches the positive 
current has made itself lord of the body. It gains so 
much strength that the sensuous and active organs 
lose sympathy with the external world. Perception 
and action cease, and the waking state passes off. The 
excess of the positive current slackens, as it were, the 
tattvic chords of the different centres of work, and 
they accordingly cease to answer to the ordinary ethe 
real changes of external nature. If at this point the 
strength of the positive current passed beyond ordi 
nary limits, death would ensue, and Prana would cease 
to have any connection with the gross body, the ordi 
nary vehicle of the external tattvic changes. But just 
at the moment the Prana passes out of the heart, the 
negative current sets in, and it begins to counteract 
the effects of the former. As the Prana reaches the 
spine, the effects of the positive current have entirely 
passed off, and we awake. If at this moment the 
strength of the negative current passes the ordinary 
limit by some cause or other, death would ensue, but 
just at this moment the positive current sets in with 
midnight, and begins to counteract the effect of the 
former. A balance of the positive and negative cur 
rents thus keeps body and soul together. With excess 



PRANA. 55 

in the strength of either current, death makes its 
appearance. We thus see that there are two kinds of 
death the positive or spinal, the negative or cardiac. 
In the former the four higher prmciples~pass" out of 
the body through the head, the Braliinarandhra, along 
the spine; in the latter they pass out of the mouth 
through the lungs and the trachea. Besides these 
there are generally speaking about six tattvic deaths. 
All these deaths mark out different paths for the 
higher principles. Of these, however, more hereafter. 
Let us at this stage investigate more thoroughly the 
changes of Prana. 

There are certain manifestations of Prana which we 
find equally at work in all the three states. These 
manifestations have been, as I said before, classified 
by some writers under five heads. They have different 
centres of work in different parts of the body, from 
whence they assert their dominion over every part of 
the physical coil. Thus: 

POSITIVE. XKGATIVK. 

1. Prana, right lung. i. Prana, left lung. 

2. Apana, the apparatus which 2. Apana, the urinary apparatus. 
passes off fieces long intes 
tine, etc. 

3. Samana, stomach. 3. Samana, duodenum. 

4. Vyana, all over the body, ap- 4. Vyana, all over the body (on 
pearing in varying states with the left side) 

different organs (on the right 
side). 

5. TMaua, at the spinal and car- 5. TMana, the spinal and cardiac 
diac centres (ii;;ht side), and centres (left side), etc. 
about the resnuii of the throat. 



56 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

1. Prana is that manifestation of the life-coil which 
draws atmospheric air from without into the system. 

2. Apana is that manifestation which throws, from 
inside, out of the system, things which are not wanted 
there. 

3. Samana is that manifestation which draws in and 
carries the juice of food to every part of the body. 

4. Vyana is that manifestation which causes every 
part of the body to keep its shape, and to consequently 
resist those putrefying forces which assert themselves 
in a dead body. 

5. Udana is that manifestation which inclines the 
^ , currents of life back to the centres the heart and the 

brain. It is, therefore, this manifestation which causes 
death local or general. 

If Prana recedes from any part of the body (for 
some reason or other) that part loses its powers of 
action. This is local death. It is in this way that we 
become deaf, dumb, blind, etc. It is in this way that 
our digestive powers suffer, and so on. General death 
is similar in its operations. With the excess of the 
strength of either of the two currents, the Prana re 
mains in the Sushumna, and does not pass out. The 
acquired power of work of the body then begins to 
pass off. The farther from the centres the heart and 
the brain the sooner the parts die. It is thus that 
the pulse first ceases to be felt in the extremities, and 
then nearer and nearer the heart, until we find it 
nowhere. 

Again, it is this upward impulse which, under 



PRAXA. ^7 

favourable conditions, causes growth, lightness, and 
agility. 

Besides the organs of the body already mentioned 
or indicated, the manifestation of Vyana serves to 
keep in form the five organs of sense, and the five 
organs of action. The organs of the gross body and 
the powers of Prana which manifest themselves in 
work have both the same names. Thus we have : 

ACTIVE ORGANS AND SENSUOUS ORGANS AND 

POWERS. POWERS. 

1. Vak, the vocal organs and the i. Chaksuh, eye and ocular 
power of speech. power. 

2. Pani, the hands and the man- 2. Tvak, skin and tangeriferous 
ual power. power. 

3. Pada, the feet and the walk- 3. Shrotra, ear and sonoriferous 
ing power. power. 

4. Payu, anus. 4. Rasana, tongue and gustatory 

power. 

5. Upastha, the generative or- 5. Gandha, nose and odoriferous 
gans and the powers which power. 

draw these together. 

The real fact is that the different powers are the 
corresponding organs of the principle of life. It 
will now be instructive to trace the tattvic changes 
.md influences of these various manifestations of 
life. 

Prana during health works all over the system in 
one class of tattvic centres at the same time. We 
thus see that both during the course of the positive 
and negative current we have five tattvic changes. 
The colour of Prana during the reign of the negative 
current is pure white; during that of the positive, 



58 NATURE S FINER KORCKS. 

reddish white. The former is calmer and smoother 
than the latter. 

The tattvic changes give to each of these five new 
phases of colour. Thus: 

POSITIVE REDDISH WHITE. NEGATIVE PURE WHITE. 

1. The Vayu Tattva, green. i. The Vayu Tattva, green. 

2. The Agni Tattva, red. 2. The Agni Tattva, red. 

3. The Prithivi Tattva, yellow. 3. The Prithivi Tattva, yellow. 

4. The Apas Tattva, white. 4. The Apas Tattva, white. 

5. The Akasha Tattva, dark. 5. The Akasha Tattva, dark. 

It is evident that there is a difference between the 
positive and negative tattvic phases of colour. There- 
are thus ten general phases of colour. 

The positive current the reddish white is hotter 
than the negative the pure white. It may, therefore, 
be generally said that the positive current is hot, the 
negative cool. Each of these, then undergoes five 
tattvic changes of temperature. The Agni is the 
hottest, the yellow next to it; the Vayu becomes cool, 
and the Apas is the coolest. The Akasha has a state 
which neither cools nor heats. This state is, therefore, 
the most dangerous of all, and, if prolonged, causes 
death, disease, and debility. It is evident that if the 
cooling Tattvas do not in due time set in after the 
heating Tattvas, to counteract the accumulated effect 
of the latter, the functions of life will be impaired. 
The just colour and the just temperature at which 
these functions work in their vigour will be disturbed, 
and disease, death, and debility are nothing more than 
this disturbance in various degrees. Similar is the 



PRANA. 1^9 

case if the heating Tattvas do not set in in due time 
after the cooling ones. 

It will be easy to understand that these changes of 
tattvic colours and temperatures are not abrupt. The 
one passes off easily and smoothly into the other, 
and the tattvic mixtures produce innumerable colours 
as many, in fact, as the solar Prana has been shown 
to possess. Each of these colours tends to keep the 
body healthy if it remains in action just as long as it 
ought, but no sooner does the duration change than 
disease results. There is a possibility, therefore, of 
as many diseases as there are colours in the sun. 

If any one colour is prolonged, there must be some 
one or more which has given the period of its dura 
tion to it; similarly if one colour takes less time than 
it ought, there must be some one or more which takes 
its place. This suggests two methods of the treat 
ment of diseases. But before speaking of these, it will 
be necessary to investigate as fully as possible the 
causes which lengthen and shorten the ideal periods 
of the Tattvas. 

To return for the present to Prana. This pul 
monary manifestation of the principle of life is the 
most important of all, because its working furnishes 
us with a most faithful measure of the tattvic state of 
the body. It is on this account that the name Prana 
has been given by preeminence to this manifesta 
tion. 

Now, as the Prana works in the pulmonary Tcjas 
centres (/.6 ., the centres of the luminiferous ether), 



60 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

tlie lungs are thrown into a triangular form of expan 
sion, atmospheric air runs in, and the process of inspi 
ration is complete. With every Truti, a backward 
impulse is given to the currents of Prana. The lungs 
are thrown with this returning current into their sta 
tionary state, and the excess of air is expelled. This 
is the process of expiration. The air that is thus 
thrown out of the lungs bears a triangular form. The 
water-vapour which this air contains, to some extent 
furnishes us with a method of testing this truth by 
experiment. If we take a smooth, shining looking- 
glass, and, placing it under the nose, steadily breathe 
upon its cool surface, the water-vapour of the air will 
be condensed, and it will be seen that this bears a 
particular figure. In the case of the pure Agni, the 
figure on the looking-glass will be a triangle. Let 
another person look steadily upon the mirror, because 
the impression passes off rapidly, and may escape the 
person who is breathing upon it. 

With the course of the other Tattvas the lungs are 
thrown into their respective shapes, and the looking- 
glass gives us the same figures. Thus in Apas we 
have the semi-moon, in Vayu the sphere, in Prithivi 
the quadrangle. With the composition of these 
Tattvas we may have other figures oblongs, squares, 
spheroids, and so on. 

It may also be mentioned that the luminiferous 
ether carries the materials drawn from the atmospheric 
air to the centres of the luminiferous ether, and thence 
to every part of the body. So also do the other ethers 



PRANA. 6l 

carry these materials to their respective centres. It ^ 
not necessary to trace the workings of the other mani 
festations one by one. It may, however, be said that 
although all the five Tattvas work in all the five 
manifestations, each of these manifestations is sacred 
to one of these Tattvas. Thus in Prana the Vayu 
Tattva prevails, in Samana the Agni, in Apana the 
Prithivi, in Yyuna the Apas, in Udfma the Akasha. 
I may remind the reader that the general colour of 
Prana is white, and this will show how the Apas 
Tattva prevails in Yyana. The darkness of Akasha 
is the darkness of death, etc., caused by the manifesta 
tion of Udana. 

During life these ten changes are always taking 
place in Prana at the intervals of about twenty-six 
minutes each. In waking, in sleep, or in dream, these 
changes never cease. It is only in the two Sushumnas 
or the Akasha that these changes become for a moment 
potential, because it is from these that these tattvic 
manifestations show themselves on the plane of the 
body. If this moment is prolonged, the forces of 
Prana remain potential, and in death the Prana is 
thus in the potential state. When those causes which 
tended to lengthen the period of Sushumna, and thus 
cause death, are removed, this individual Prana passes 
out of the potential into the actual, positive, or nega 
tive state as the case may be. It will energize matter, 
and will develop it into the shape towards which its 
accumulated potentialities tend. 

hino- mav now be said about the work of 



62 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

THE SENSUOUS AND ACTIVE ORGANS. 

r All work, it may generally be said, is tattvic motion. 

This work is capable of being carried on during the 

waking state, and not in sleep or dream. These ten 

organs have ten general colours, thus: 

SENSUOUS ORGANS. ACTIVE ORGANS. 

1. Eye, Agni, red. i. Hand, Vayu, blue. 

2. Ear, Akasha, dark. 2. Foot, Prithivi, yellow. 

3. Nose, Prithivi, yellow. 3. Tongue (speech), Apas, white. 

4. Tongue (taste), Apas, white. 4. Anus, Akasha, dark. 

5. Skin, Vayu, blue. 5. Pudendum, Agni, red. 

Although these are the generally prevalent Tattvas 
in these various centres, all the other Tattvas exist in 
a subordinate position. Thus in the eye we have a 
reddish yellow, reddish white, reddish dark, reddish 
blue, and similarly in the other organs. This division 
into five of each of these colours is only general; in 
reality there is an almost innumerable variation of 
colours in each of these. 

With every act of every one of these ten organs, the 
organ specially, and the whole body generally, assumes 
a different colour, the colour of that particular tattvic 
motion which constitutes that act. 

All these changes of Prana constitute the sum total 
of our worldly experience. Furnished with this appa 
ratus, Prana begins its human pilgrimage, in company 
with a mind, which is evolved only to the extent of 
connecting the "I am" of the Ahankara or Vijnana, 
the fourth principle from below, with these manifesta 
tions of Prana. Time imprints upon it all the in- 



PRAXA. 63 

numerable colours of the universe. The visual, the 
tangible, the gustatory, the auditory, and the olfactory 
appearances in all their variety gather into Prana just 
as our daily experience teaches us that one current of 
electricity carries many messages at one and the same 
time. In the same way do the appearances of the 
active organs, and the five remaining general func 
tions of the body, gather up in this Prana to manifest 
themselves in due time. 

A few illustrations will render all this clear. First 
to speak of our 

SRX RELATIONS. 

The generative Agni Tattva of the male is positive, 
that of the female negative. The former is hotter, 
harsher, and more restless than the latter; the latter 
is cooler, smoother, and calmer than the former. 
Here I shall only speak of the colouration of Prana 
by the action or non-action of this power. The posi 
tive Agni tends to run into the negative, and vice, versa. 
If it is not allowed to do so, the repeated impulses of 
this Tattva turn upon themselves, the centre gains 
greater strength, and the whole Prana is every day 
coloured deeper and deeper red. The centres of the 
Agni Tattva all over the body become stronger in 
their action, while all the others contract a general 
tinge of the red. The eyes and the stomach become 
stronger. If, however, man indulges his sexual in 
stincts, the male Prana gets coloured by the female 
Agni, and vice, versa. This tends to weaken all the 
centres of this Tattva, and gives to the whole Prana 



64 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

a feminine colour. The stomach also becomes cool, 
the eyes grow weak, and virile manly power departs. 
If more than one individual female Agni takes posses 
sion of the male Prana, and vice versa, the general 
antagonistic Tattva becomes deeper and stronger. The 
whole Prana is vitiated to a greater extent, greater 
debility is the result, spermatorrhoea, impotence, and 
such other antagonistic colours take possession of the 
Prana. Besides, the separate individualities of the 
male or female Agnis, which have taken possession of 
any one Prana, will tend to repel each other. 
Suppose now that a man is given to 

WALKING. 

The Prithivi Tattva of the feet gains strength, the 
yellow colour pervades the whole Prana. The centres 
of the Prithivi all over the body begin to work more 
briskly; Agni receives a mild and wholesome addition 
to its power, the whole system tends towards healthy 
equilibrium neither too hot, nor yet too cold and 
a general feeling of satisfaction accompanied with 
vigour, playfulness and a relish of enjoyment is the 
result. 

Let me take one more illustration from the opera 
tions of 

VAK (SPEECH), 

and then I shall have done with the organs of action. 
The power (Shakti) of speech (Yak, Sarasvati) is one 
of the most important goddesses of the Hindu pan 
theon. The chief ingredient of Prana which go^- 



PRANA. 



\ 



towards the formation of this organ is the Apas 
Tattva. The colour of the goddess is, therefore, said 
to be white. The vocal chords with the larynx in front 
form the Vina (musical instrument) of the goddess. 

In this section of the vocal apparatus A 
A B is the thyroid, a broad cartilage 
forming the projection of the throat, and 
much more prominent in men than in 

women. Below this is the annular car- / 

a/ 

tilage, C, the cricoid. Behind this or 
we may say on this are stretched the 
chords a and b. 

Atmospheric air passing over these 
chords in the act of breathing sets them 
in vibration, and sound is the result. 
Ordinarily these chords are too loose to 
give any sound. The Apas Tattva, the milk-white 
goddess of speech, performs the all-important function 
of making them tense. As the semi-lunar current 
of the Apas Tattva passes along the muscles of these 
chords, they are, as it were, shrivelled up, and curves 
are formed in the chords, which are thus rendered 
tighter. 

The depth of these curves depends upon the 
strength of the Apas current. The deeper these 
curves, the tenser are the chords. The thyroid serves 
to vary the intensity of the voice thus produced. This 
will suffice for the purpose of showing that the real 
motive power in the production of voice is the Apas 
Tattva or Prana. There are certain ethereal condi- 




66 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

tions of the external world, as will be easily under 
stood, which excite the centres of the Apas Tattva; 
the current passes along the vocal chords, they are 
made tense, and sound is produced. But the excite 
ment of these centres comes also from the soul through 
the mind. The use of this sound in the course of 
evolution as the vehicle of thought is the marriage 
of Brahma (the Vijnanamaya Kosha, the soul) with 
Sarasvati, the power of speech as located in man. 

The Apas Tattva of the vocal apparatus, although 
the chief motive power in the production of sound, is 
modified according to circumstances by the compo 
sition of the other Tattvas in various degrees. As 
far as human ken reaches, about forty-nine of these 
variations have been recorded under the name of 
Svara. First, there are seven general notes. These 
may be positive and negative (Tivra and Komala), 
and then each of these may have three subdivisions. 
These notes are then composed into eight Ragas, and 
each Raga has several Raginis. The simple Raginis 
may be then compounded into others, and each Ragini 
may have a good many arrangements of notes. The 
variations of sound thus become almost innumerable. 
All these variations are caused by the varying tensions 
of the vocal chords, the Vina of Sarasvati, and the 
tensions vary by the varying strength of the Apas 
current, caused by the superposition of the other 
Tattvas. 

Each variation of sound has, then, a colour of its 
own, which affects the whole Prana in its own way. 



PR ANA. 



The tattvic effect of all these sounds is noted down in 
books of music; and various diseases may be cured, 
and good or bad tendencies imprinted on the Prana 
by the power of sound. Sarasvati is an all-powerful 
goddess, and controls our Pranas for good or evil as 
the case may be. If a song or note is coloured by the 
Agni Tattva, the sound colours the Prana red, simi 
larly the Yayu, the Apas, the Akasha, and the Prithivi, 
blue, white, dark and yellow. The red-coloured song- 
causes heat; it may cause anger, sleep, digestion, and 
redness of colour. The Akasha-coloured song causes 
fear, forgetfulness, etc. Songs may similarly give to 
our Prana the colour of love, enmity, adoration, 
morality, or immorality, as the case may be. 

L,ct us turn another key. If the words we utter 
bear the colour of the Agni Tattva anger, love, lust 
our Prana is coloured red, and this redness turns 
upon ourselves. It may burn up our substance, we 
may look lean and lank, we may have ten thousand 
other diseases. Terrible retribution of angry words! 
If our words are full of divine love and adoration, 
kindness and morality, words which give pleasure and 
satisfaction to whosoever hears them the colours of 
the Prithivi and the Apas we become loving and 
beloved, adoring and adored, kind and moral, pleasing 
and pleased, satisfying and ever satisfied. The dis 
cipline of speech itself the Satya of Patanjali is 
thus one of the highest practices of Yoga. 

Sensuous impressions colour the Prana in a similar 
way. If we be given to too much sight-seeing, to the 



68 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

hearing of pleasant sounds, to the smelling of dainty 
smells, etc., the colours of these Tattvas will be over 
much strengthened, and gain a mastery over our Prana. 
If we are fond of seeing beautiful women, hearing the 
music of their voices, heaven help us, for the least and 
the most general effect will be that our Pranas will 
receive the feminine colouration. 

These illustrations are sufficient to explain how 
the tattvic colours of external nature gather up 
in Prana. It may be necessary to say that no new 
colours enter into the formation of Prana. All the 
colours of the universe are already present there, just 
as they are in the sun, the prototype of Prana. The 
colouration which I have spoken of is only the 
strengthening of the particular colour to an extent 
which throws the others in shade. It is this disturb 
ance of balance which in the first place causes the 
variety of human Prana, and in the second those 
innumerable diseases which flesh is heir to. 

From this it is evident that every- action of man 
gives his Prana a separate colour, and the colour 
affects the gross body in its turn. But when, at what 
time, does the particular tattvic colour affect the 
body? Ordinarily under similar tattvic conditions of 
the external universe. This means that if the Agni 
Tattva has gained strength in any Prana at any one 
particular division of time, the strength will show 
itself when that particular division of time recurs 
again. Before attempting a solution of this problem, 
it is necessary to understand the following truths: 



PRANA. 



The sun is the chief life-giver of every organism in 
the system. The moment that a new organism has 
come into existence, the sun changes his capacity 
in relation to that organism. He now becomes the 
sustainer in that organism of positive life. Along 
with this the moon begins to influence the organism in 
her own way. She becomes the sustainer of negative 
life. The planets each of them establish their own 
currents in the organism. For the sake of simplicity 
I have as yet only spoken of the sun and the moon, 
the lords respectively of the positive and negative 
currents of the right and left halves of the body, of 
the brain and the heart, of the nerves and the blood 
vessels. These are the two chief sources of life, but 
the planets, it must be remembered, exercise a modify 
ing influence over these currents. So the real tattvic 
condition of any moment is determined by all the 
seven planets, as also by the sun and the moon. Each 
planet, after determining the general tattvic condition 
of the moment, proceeds to introduce changes in the 
organism which is the birth of the moment. These 
changes correspond with the manifestation of that 
colour of Prana which took its rise at that time. Thus, 
suppose the red colour has entered Prana when the 
moon is in the second degree of the sign of Libra. If 
there is no disturbing influence of any other luminary, 
the red colour will manifest itself whenever the moon 
is in the same position; if there be a disturbing influ 
ence the red colour will manifest itself when that 
influence is removed. It may show itself in a month, 



7 o NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

or it may be postponed for ages. It is very difficult to 
determine the time when an act will have its effect. 
It depends a good deal upon the strength of the im 
pression. The strength of the impression may be 
divided into ten degrees, although some writers have 
gone further. 

1. Momentary. This degree of strength has its 
effect there and then. 

2. 30 strength. In this case the effect will show 
itself when each planet is in the same sign as at the 
time of the impression. 

3. 15 strength. (Mora.) 

4. 10 strength. (Dreshkana.) 

5. 200 strength. (Navansha.) 

6. 150 strength. (Dvadashansha.) 

7. 60 or i strength. (Trinshansha.) 

8. i" strength. (Kala.) 

9. i" strength. (Vipaln.) 

10. i"" strength. (Truti.) 

Suppose in any Prana, on account of any action, the 
Agni Tattva obtains the strongest possible prevalence 
consistent with the preservation of the body, the 
Tattva will begin to have its effect then and there, 
until it has exhausted itself to a certain extent. It 
will then become latent and show itself when at any 
time the same planets sit in the same mansions. 
Examples will illustrate better. Suppose the follow 
ing position of the planets at any moment denotes 
the tattvic condition when any given colour has 
entered the Prana, say Tuesday, the 3rd of April, 



PR AN A. 



at a time when the positions of the stars are as 
follows : 



Sun 


sign. 
1 1 


deg. 
22 


m. 


s. 


Mars 


c 


2>S 




55 
/in 


Mercurv 


. . . . If) 


T; 


/f 




Saturn 




Q 






Venus 


II 




"?> 


l 7 


Moon 




]6 


c 




Jupiter . . 


. 7 


I ^ 


.n 


<;? 



It is at this time, we suppose, that the act above 
referred to is committed. The present effect will pass 
off with the two hours lunar current which may be 
passing at that time. It will then become latent, and 
remain so till the time when these planets are in the 
same position again. These positions might, as has 
been seen, be nine and more in number. 

As soon as the exact time passes off when a colour 
has obtained predominance in Prana, the effect thereof 
on the gross body becomes latent. It shows itself 
again in a general way when the stars sit in the same 
mansions. Some of the strength is worn off at this 
time, and the force again becomes latent to show itself 
in greater minuteness when at any time the half- 
mansions coincide, and so on with the remaining 
parts noticed above. There may be any number of 
times when there is only an approach to coincidence, 
and then the effect will tend to show itself though it 
will at that time only remain a tendency 

These observations, although necessarily very 
meagre, tend to show that the impression produced 



7^ NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

upon Prana by any act, however insignificant, really 
takes ages to pass off, when the stars coincide in posi 
tion to a degree with that when the act was com 
mitted. A knowledge of astronomy is thus highly 
essential in occult Vedic religion. The following 
observations may, however, render the above a little 
more intelligible. 

The Pranamaya Kosha, as often remarked, is an 
exact picture of the terrestrial Prana. The periodical 
currents of the finer forces of nature which are in the 
earth operate according to the same laws in the prin 
ciple of life; just as is the Zodiac, so is the Pranamaya 
Kosha divided into mansions, etc. The northern and 
southern inclinations of the axis give us a heart and 
a brain. Each of these has branching off from it 
twelve ramifications, which are the twelve signs of 
the Zodiac. The daily rotation then gives us the 
thirty-one Chakras spoken of previously. These 
Chakras have all the divisions of the signs of the 
Zodiac. The division into semi-mansions has already 
been spoken of. There is the positive semi-mansion, 
and the negative semi-mansion. Then we have the 
one-third, the one-ninth, the one-twelfth, and so on 
to a degree, or the divisions or subdivisions thereof. 
Each of these Chakras, both diurnal and annual, 
is in fact a circle of 360 like the great circles of 
the heavenly spheres. Through these Chakras is 
established a course of seven descriptions of life- 
currents. 

(i) Solar; (2) Lunar; (3) Mars, Agni; (4) Mercury, 



PRANA. 73 

Prithivi; (5) Jupiter, Vayu; (6) Venus, Apas; (7) 
Saturn, Akasha. 

It is quite possible that along the same Chakras 
there may be passing all or any one or more of these 
differing currents at one and the same time. The 
reader is reminded of the telegraph currents of modern 
electricity. It is evident that the real state of Prana 
is determined by the position of these various local 
ized currents. Now, if any one or more of these 
tattvic currents is strengthened by any act of ours, 
under any position of the currents, it is only when we 
have to a degree the same position of the currents 
that the tattvic effect will make its appearance in full 
strength. There may also be appearances of slight 
power at various times, but the full strength will never 
be exhausted until we have the same position of these 
currents to the minutest division of a degree. This 
takes ages upon ages, and it is quite impossible that the 
effect should pass off in the present life. Hence arises 
the necessity of Reincarnation upon this earth. 

The accumulated tattvic effects of a life s work give 
to each life a general tinge of its own. This tinge 
wears off gradually, as the component colours pass off 
or weaken in strength, one by one. When each of 
the component colours is one by one sufficiently worn 
out, the general colour of a life passes off. The gross 
body which was given birth to by this particular 
colour ceases to respond to the now generally different 
coloured Prana. The Prana does not pass out of the 
Sushumna. Death is the result. 



74 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

DEATH. 

As already said, the two ordinary forms of death 
are the positive through the brain, and the negative 
through the heart. This is death through the Su- 
shumna. In this the Tattvas are all potential. Death 
may also take place through the other Nadis. In this 
case there must always be the prevalence of one or 
more of the Tattvas. 

Towards different regions does the Prana go after 
death, according to the paths through which it passes 
out of the body. Thus : 

1. The negative Sushumna takes it to the moon. 

2. The positive Sushumna takes it to the sun. 

3. The Agni of the other Nadis takes it to the hill 
known as Raurava (fire). 

4. The Apas of the other Nadis takes it to the hill 
known as Ambarisha, and so on; the Akasha, the 
Vayu and the Prithivi take it to Andhatamisra, Kala- 
st"itra, and Mahakala respectively (see Yoga Sutra, 
Pada in, Aphorism 26, commentary). 

The negative path is that generally taken by the 
Prana. This path takes it to the moon (the Chandra- 
loka) because the moon is the lord of the negative sys 
tem, the negative currents, and the negative Sushumna 
the heart, which therefore is a continuation of the 
lunar Prana. The Prana which has the general negative 
colour can only move along this path, and it is trans 
ferred naturally to the reservoirs, the centres of the nega 
tive Prana. Those men in whom the two hours lunar 
current is passing more or less regularly take this path. 



PRANA. 75 

The Prana which has lost the intensity of its terres 
trial colour, energizes lunar matter according to its 
own strength, and thus establishes there for itself a 
sort of passive life. The mind is here in a state of 
dream. The tattvic impressions of gathered-up forces 
pass before it in the same way as they do in our earthly 
dreams. The only difference is that in that state there 
is not the superposed force of indigestion to render 
the tattvic impressions so strong and sudden as to be 
terrible. That dreamy state is characterised by extreme 
calmness. Whatever our mind has in it of the inter 
esting experiences of this world; whatever we have 
thought, or heard, or seen, or enjoyed; the sense of 
satisfaction and enjoyment, the bliss and playfulness 
of the Apas and the Prithivi Tattvas, the languid 
sense of love of the Agni, the agreeable forgetfulness 
of the Akasha, all make their appearance one after 
the other in perfect calm. The painful impressions 
make no appearance, because the painful arises when 
any impression forces itself upon the mind which is 
out of harmony with its surroundings. It is in this 
state that the mind lives in the Chandraloka, as will 
be better understood when I come to speak oi the 
tattvic causes of dreams. 

Ages roll on in this Loka, during which the mind, 
according to the same general laws which obtain for 
Prana, wears out the impressions of a former liie. The 
intense tattvic colours which the ceaseless activity of 
Prana had called into existence therein gradually fade, 
until at last the mind comes upon a permanent level 



76 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

with the Prana. Both of them have now lost the 
tinge of a former life. Of Prana it might be said 
that it has a new appearance; of the mind, that it has 
a new consciousness. When they are both in this 
state, both very weak, the accumulated tattvic effects 
of Prana begin to show themselves with the return of 
the same positions of the stars. These draw us back 
from the lunar to the terrestrial Prana. The mind at 
this stage has no individuality worth taking account 
of, so that it is drawn by Prana to wherever its affini 
ties carry it. Thus it joins with those solar rays 
which wear a similar colour, all those mighty poten 
tialities which show themselves in the future man 
being as yet quite latent. With the rays of the sun it 
passes according to the ordinary laws of vegetation 
into grain bearing similar colours. Each grain has a 
separate individuality, which accounts for its separate 
existence, and there may be in many a grain human 
potentialities, giving it an individuality of its own. 

Similarly do human individualities come back from 
the five states which are known as hells. These are 
the states of posthumous existence fixed for those 
men who enjoy to an excessive and violent degree the 
various impressions of each of the Tattvas. As the 
tattvic intensity, which disturbs the balance and there 
fore causes pain, wears off in time, the individual Prana 
passes off to the lunar sphere, and thence undergoes 
the same states which have been above described. 

Along the positive path through the Brahmarandhra 
pass those Pranas which transcend the general effects 



PRANA. 77 

of time, and therefore do not return to earth under 
ordinary laws. It is time that brings back the Pranas 
from the moon, and the least strong tattvic condition 
comes into play with the return of identical astral 
positions; but the sun being the keeper of time him 
self, and the strongest factor in the determination of 
his tattvic condition, it would be impossible for solar 
time to affect solar Prana. Therefore, only those 
Pranas travel towards the sun in which there is almost 
no preponderance of any tattvic colour. This is the 
state of the Prana of Yogis alone. By the constant 
practice of the eight branches of Yoga, the Prana is 
purified of any very strongly personifying colours, 
and since it is evident that on such a Prana time can 
have no effect under ordinary circumstances, they pass 
off to the sun. These Pranas have no distinct per 
sonifying colours; all of them that go to the sun have 
almost the same general tinge. But their minds are 
different. They can be distinguished from each 
other, according to the particular branch of science 
which they have cultivated, or according to the par 
ticular and varying methods of mental improvement 
which they have followed on earth. In this state the 
mind is not dependent, as in the moon, upon the im 
pressions of Prana. Constant practice of Yoga has 
rendered it an independent worker, depending only 
upon the soul, and moulding the Prana to its own 
shapes, and giving it its own colours. This is a kind 
of Moksha. 

Although the sun is the most potent lord of life, 



78 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

and the tattvic condition of Prana has now no effect 
upon the Prana which has passed to the sun, it is still 
affected by the planetary currents, and there are times 
when this effect is very strong, so that the earthly , 
conditions in which minds have previously existed 
are again present with them. A desire to do the same 
sort of good they did in the world in their previous 
life takes possession of them, and impelled by this 
desire they sometimes come back to the earth. Shan- 
karacharya has noticed in his commentary on the 
Brahmasiitra that Apantartamah, one of the Vedic 
Rishis, thus appeared on earth as Krishna Dvaipa- 
yana, about the end of the Dvapara and the beginning 
of the Kali Yuga. 

As it is desirable that as much should be known 
about Prana as possible, I give below some quotations 
on the subject from the Prashnopanishad. They will 
give additional interest to the subject, and present it 
in a more comprehensive and far more attractive garb. 

"He who knows the birth, the coming in, the places 
of manifestation, the rule, and the microcosmic appear 
ance of Prana becomes immortal by that knowledge." 

Practical knowledge of the laws of life and a sub 
ordination of the lower nature to the behests of such 
laws, must naturally end in the passing of the soul 
out of the shadowy side of life into the original light 
of the sun. This means immortality, that is, passing 
beyond the power of terrestrial death. 

But to go en with what the Upanishad has to say 
of the things to be known about Prana. 



PRANA. 



Till-; BIRTH OF PR ANA. 

The Praiu is born from the Atina; it arises in the 
Atnia, like the shadow in the body. 

The human body, or other organism, coming as it 
does between the sun and the portion of space on the 
other side, throws a shade />/ the ocean of Prana. 
Similarly is the Prana seen as a shade in the macro- 
cosmic soul (Ishvara) because the macrocosmic mind 
(Manti) intervenes. Briefly the Prana is the shade of 
Mann caused by the light of the Logos, the macro- 
cosmic centre. The suns owe their birth in this shade 
to the impression upon it of the macrocosmic mental 
ideas. These suns the centres of Prana, become in 
their turn the positive starting-point of further develop 
ment. The Mantis, throwing their shade by the inter 
vention of the suns, give birth in those shades to 
planets, etc. The suns throwing their shades by the 
intervention of planets, give birth to moons. Then 
these different centres begin to act upon the planets, 
and the sun descends on them in the shape of various 
organisms, man included. 

TIIIv .MACROCOSMIC APPICARAXCK. 
This Prana is found in the macrocosm as the ocean 
of life with the sun for its centre. It assumes two 
phases of existence the Prana, the solar, positive 
life-matter; the Rayi, the lunar, negative life-matter. 
The former is the northern phase and the eastern; the 
latter is the southern phase and the western. In every 
moment of terrestrial life, we have thus the northern 



80 NATURE S FIXER FORCES. 

and southern centres of Prana, the centres from which 
the southern and northern phases of life-matter take 
their start. The eastern and western halves are there 
also. 

At every moment of time i.e., in every Truti there 
are millions of Trutis perfect organisms in space. 
This may require some explanation. The units of 
time and space are the same a Truti. Take any one 
Truti of time. It is well known that every moment 
of time the tattvic rays of Prana go in every direction 
from every point to every other point. Hence it is 
clear enough that every Truti of space is a perfect 
picture of the whole apparatus of Prana, with all its 
centres and sides, and positive and negative relations. 
To express a good deal in a few words, every Truti of 
space is a perfect organism. In the ocean of Prana 
which surrounds the sun there are innumerable such 
Trutis. 

While essentially the same, it is easy to understand 
that the following items will make a difference in the 
general colour, appearance, and forms of these Trutis. 

1. Distance from the solar centre. 

2. Inclination from the solar axis. 

I take the earth for illustration. That zone of solar 
life, taking into consideration both the distance and 
the inclination in which the earth moves, gives birth 
to earth-life. This zone of earth-life is known as the 
ecliptic. Now every Truti of space in this ecliptic is 
a separate individual organism. As the earth moves 
in her annual course, />., as the Truti of time changes, 



PRAXA. 



these permanent Trntis of space change the phases of 
their life. But their permanency is never impaired. 
They retain their individuality all the same. 

All the planetary influences reach these Trntis 
always, wherever the planets may be in their journey. 
The changing distance and inclination is, of course, 
always causing a change of life-phase. 

This Truti of space, from its permanent position in 
the ecliptic, while maintaining its connection with all 
the planets, at the same time sends its tattvic rays to 
every other quarter of space. They come also to the 
earth. 

It is a condition of earth-life that the positive and 
negative currents of life the Prana and the Rayi be 
equally balanced. When, therefore, in this ecliptical 
Truti the two phases of life-matter are equally strong, 
the tattvic rays which come from it to the earth ener 
gize gross matter there. The moment that the balance 
is disturbed by the tattvic influence of the planets, or 
by some other cause, terrestrial death ensues. This 
simply means that the tattvic rays of the Truti which 
fall on earth cease to energize gross matter, although 
they do fall there all the same, and although the Truti 
is unaltered in its permanent ecliptical abode. In this 
posthumous state, the human Truti will energize gross 
matter in that quarter of space whose laws of relative, 
negative, and positive predominance coincide with that 
state. Thus, when the negative life-matter, the Rayi, 
becomes over strong, the energization of the Truti 
is transferred from the earth to the moon. Similarly 



82 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

it may pass to other spheres. When the terrestrial 
balance is again restored, when this posthumous life 
has been lived, the energization is again transferred to 
the earth. 

Such is the macrocosmic appearance of Prana, with 
the pictures of all the organisms of the earth. And 
now for 

THE COMING IN. 

How does this Pranamaya Kosha this Truti of the 
macrocosm come into this body? "By actions at 
whose root lies the mind," says briefly the Upanishad. 
It has been explained how every action changes the 
nature of the Pranamaya Kosha, and it will be ex 
plained in the essay on the "Cosmic Picture Gallery" 
how these changes are represented in the cosmical 
counterpart of our life-principle. It is evident that 
by these actions is produced the change in the general 
relative nature of the Prana and the Rayi which has 
been spoken of in the foregoing part of this essay. 
It is hardly necessary to say that the mind the human 
free will lies at the root of those actions which disturb 
the tattvic balance of the life-principle. Hence "the 
Prana comes into this body by actions, at whose root 
lies the mind." 

THE PLACES OF MANIFESTATION. 

"As the paramount power appoints its servants, 
telling them, Rule such and siich villages, so does 
the Prana. It puts its different manifestations in dif 
ferent places. In the Payu [anus] and Upastha is the 



PRAXA. 8^ 

Apana [which discharges faeces and urine]. In the eye 
and the ear are the manifestations known as sight and 
hearing [Chaksliuh and Shrotra]. The Prana remains 
itself, going out of mouth and nose. Between [the 
places of Prana and Apana, about the navel] lives the 
Samana. It is this that carries equally [all over the 
body] the food [and drink] that is thrown in the fire. 
Hence are those seven lights. [By means of Prana, 
light of knowledge is thrown over colour, form, 
sound, etc.] 

"In the heart verily is this Atma [the Pranamaya 
Kosha], and in it, verily, the other coils. Here there 
are a hundred and one Nadis, each Nadi containing a 
hundred coils. In each of these branch Nadis there 
are 72,000 other Nadis. In these moves the Vyana. 

"By one [the Sushumna] going upward, the Udana 
carries to good worlds by means of goodness, and to 
evil ones by means of evil; by both to the world of 
men. 

"The sun is, verily, the macrocosmic Prana; he 
rises, and thereby helps the eyesight. The power that 
is in the earth keeps up the power of Apana; the 
Akasha [the ethereal matter] that is between heaven 
and earth, helps the Samana. 

"The ethereal life-matter [independent of its being 
between the earth and heaven] which fills macrocosmic 
space, is Vyana. 

"The Tejas the luminiferous ether is Udana; 
hence he whose natural fire is cooled down [ap 
proaches death]. 



84 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

"Then the man goes towards second birth; the 
organs and senses go into the mind; the mind of the 
man comes to the Prana [its manifestations now ceas 
ing]. The Prana is combined with the Tejas, going 
with the soul, it carries it to the spheres which are 
in view." 

The different manifestations of Prana in the body, 
and the places where they manifest themselves have 
been dwelt upon. But there appear in this extract 
certain other statements of interest. It is said that 
this Atma, this Pranamaya Kosha with the other coils, 
verily, is located in the heart. The heart, as has 
been seen, represents the negative side of life the 
Rayi. When the positive Prana, which is properly 
located in the brain, impresses itself upon the Rayi 
the heart and the Nadis that flow from it the 
forms of life with the actions of man come into exist 
ence. It is therefore, properly speaking, the reflection 
in the heart that works in the world, this reflection 
being the proper lord of the sensuous and active 
organs of life. If this being in the heart learns not 
how to live here, the sensuous and active organs both 
lose their life and the connection with the world ceases. 
The being of the brain which has no immediate con 
nection with the world, except through the heart, now 
remains in its unrestrained purity; in short, the soul 
goes to the Suryloka (the sun). 

THK EXTERNAL PRANA. 

The next point of interest is the description of the 
functions of the external Prana, which lie at the root 



PRANA. 85 

of, and help the working of the individualized Prana. 
It is said that the sun is the Prana. This is evident 
enough, and has been mentioned many a time before 
this. The most important function of life, inspiration 
and expiration, the function which, according to the 
Science of Breath, is the one law of the existence of 
the universe on all the planes of life, is brought into 
existence and kept in activity by the sun himself. It 
is the solar breath that constitutes his existence, and 
this reflected in man gives birth to human breath. 

The sun then appears in another phase. He rises, 
and as he does so, he supports the eyes in their natural 
action. 

Similarly the power that is in the earth sustains the 
Apana manifestation of Prana. It is the power which 
draws everything towards the earth, says the commen 
tator. In modern language it is gravity. 

Something more might here be said about the 
Udana manifestation of Prana. As everybody knows, 
there is a phase of microcosm ic Prana which carries 
everything, names, forms, sounds, sights, and all other 
sensations, from one place to another. This is other 
wise known as the universal Agni, or the Tejas of the 
text. The localized manifestation of this phase of 
Prana is called Udana, or that which carries the life- 
principle from one place to another. The particular 
destination is determined by past actions, and this 
universal Agni carries the Prana, with the soul, to 
different worlds. 

This Prana is then a mighty being, and if its local- 



86 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

ized manifestations were to work in unison, and with 
temperance, doing their own duty, but not usurping 
the time and place of others, there would be but little 
evil in the world. 

But each of these manifestations asserts its sole 
power over the poor bewildered human soul. Each 
of these claims the whole life of man to be its owu 
proper domain. 

"The Akasha, the Vayu, the Agni, the Prithivi, 
the Apas, speech, sight and hearing all of them say 
clearly that they are the sole monarchs of the human 

body." 

The principal Prana he whose manifestations all 

these are tells them : 

"Be not forgetful, it is I who sustain the human 
body, dividing myself into five." 

If the five manifestations of Prana with all their 
minor subdivisions revolt against him, if each begins 
to assert its own lordship, and ceases to work for the 
general benefit of the lord paramount, which is the 
real life, misery makes its sad appearance to harass 
the poor human soul. 

"But the manifestations of Prana, blinded by ignor 
ance," would not "put forth" at the admonitions of 
their lord. 

"He leaves the body, and as he leaves, all the other 
minor Pranas leave it, too; they stay there as he 
stays." 

Then are their eyes opened. 

"As the bees follow the queen bee in every way, 



I RAX A. 87 

so do the Pranas namely, speech, the mind, the eye, 
the ear follow him with devotion, and thus praise 
him. 

"lie is the Agni, the cause of heat; he is the sun 
["the giver of light]; he is the cloud, he is the Indra, 
he is the Vayu, he is the Prithivi, he is the Ravi, and 
the Deva, the Sat, and the Asat,* and he is the im 
mortal. 

"Like the spokes in the nave of a wheel, every 
thing is sustained in Prana the hymns of the AY^, 
the Yajnr, and the Sdiua Vcdas, the sacrifice, the 
Kshatriyas and the Brahnians, etc. 

"Thou art the progenitor; thou movest in the 
womb; thou art born in the shape of the father or 
the mother; to thee, () Prana, that dwelleth in the 
body with thy manifestations, these creatures offer 
presents. 

"Thou art the carrier of offerings to the Devas, 
thou art the carrier of oblations to the fathers; thou 
art the action and the power of the senses and other 
manifestations of life. 

"Thou art, O Prana, the great lord in power, the 
Rudra (the destroyer) and the preserver; thou movest 
in the sky as the sun, thou art the preserver of the 
lights of heaven. 

"When thou rainest, these creatures are full of joy 
because they hope to have plenty of food. 

"Thou art Prana, pure by nature; thou art the 

* Rnyi and Asat are the negative, Deva and vSat the positive 
phases of life-matter. 



88 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

consumer of all oblations, as the Ekarshi fire [of the 
Atharvas] ; thou art the preserver of all existence; 
we are to thee the offerers of food ; thou art our father 
as the recorder [or the life-giver of the recorder]. 

"Make healthy that appearance of thine which is 
located in the speech, the ear, the eye, and that which 
is stretched towards the mind ; do not fly away. 

"Whatever exists in the three heavens, all of it is 
in the power of Prana. Protect us like a mother her 
offspring; give us wealth and intellect." 

With this I conclude my description of Prana, the 
second principle of the universe, and the human body. 
The epithets bestowed upon this mighty being in the 
above extract will be easy of understanding in the 
light of all that has gone before. It is now time to 
trace the working of the universal tattvic Law of 
Breath on the next higher plane of life the mind 
(Manoinaya Kosha). 



THE MIND. 

INTRODUCTION. 

No theory of the life of the universe is at once so 
simple and so grand as the theory of breath (Svara). 
It is the one universal motion, which makes its 
appearance in Maya by virtue of the unseen substra 
tum of the cosmos, the Parabrahman of the Vedan- 
tins. The most appropriate expression for Svara in 
English is the "current of life." The Indian Science 
of Breath investigates and formulates the laws, or 
rather the one universal law, according to which 
this current of life, this motive power of universal 
intelligence, running, as Emerson so beautifully puts 
it, along the wire of thought, governs evolution and 
involution and all the phenomena of human life, 
physiological, mental, and spiritual. In the whole 
length and breadth of this universe there is no pheno 
menon, great or small, which does not find its most 
natural, most intelligible, and most apposite explana 
tion in the theory of the five modes of manifestation 
of this universal motion the five elementary Tattvas. 
In the foregoing essays I have tried to explain generally 
how every physiological phenomenon was governed 



90 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

by the five Tattvas. The object of the present essay 
is to run over briefly the various phenomena relating 
to the third higher body of man the Manomaya 
Kosha, the mind and note how symmetrically and 
universally the Tattvas bring about the formation and 
work of this principle. 

KNOWLEDGE. 

In general language it is knowledge that distin 
guishes the mind from physiological life (Prana), but 
it will be seen on a little consideration that different 
degrees of knowledge might very well be taken as the 
distinguishing characteristics of the five states of 
matter, which in man we call the five principles. For 
what is knowledge but a kind of tattvic motion of 
breath, elevated into self-consciousness by the presence, 
in a greater or less degree, of the element of Ahankara 
(egoism) ? This is no doubt the view taken of know 
ledge by the Vedantic philosopher when he speaks of 
intelligence as being the motive power, the first cause 
of the universe. The word Svara is only a synonym 
of intelligence, the one manifestation of the One 
descending into Prakriti. 

"I see something," means, according to our view of 
knowledge, that my Manomaya Kosha has been put 
into visual vibration. 

"I hear," means that my Manomaya Kosha is in a 
state of auditory vibration. 

"I feel," means that my mind is in a state of 
tangible vibration. 

And so on with the other senses. 



THE MIND. r>I 

44 1 love," means that my mind is in a state of amatory 
vibration (a form of attraction). 

The first state that of the Anandamaya is the 
state of the highest knowledge. There is then but 
one centre, the snbstratnm for the whole infinity of 
Parabrahman, and the ethereal vibrations of his breath 
are one throughout the whole expanse of infinity. 
There is but one intelligence, but one knowledge. 
The whole universe, with all its potentialities and 
actualities, is a part of that knowledge. This is the 
highest state of bliss. There is no consciousness of 
self here, for the / has only a relative existence, and 
there must be a Thou or a He before there can be an /. 

The Ego takes form when, in the second plane of 
existence, more than one minor centre comes into 
existence. It is for this reason that the name Ahan- 
kara has been given to this state of matter. The 
ethereal impulses of those centres are confined to their 
own particular domain in space, and the} differ in 
each centre. They can, however, affect each other 
just in the same way as the individualized ethereal 
impulses of one man affect those of others. The 
tattvic motion of one centre of Brahma is carried 
along the same universal lines as the other. Two 
differing motions are thus found in one centre. The 
stronger impulse is called the /, the weaker the Thou 
or the /A 1 as the case may be. 

Then comes Manas. Viraj is the centre, and Mann 
the atmosphere of this state. These centres are 
beyond the ken of ordinary humanity, but they work 



92 NATURE S FINKR FORCES. 

under similar laws to those ruling the rest of the 
cosmos. The suns move round the Virats in the same 
way as the planets move round the sun. 

THE FUNCTIONS OF THE MIND. 

The composition of the Manu is similar to that of 
Prana; it is composed of a still finer grade of the five 
Tattvas, and this increased fineness endows the Tattvas 
with different functions. 

The five functions of Prana have been given. The 
following are the five functions of Manas, as given by 
Patanjali and accepted by Vyasa: 

i. Means of knowledge (Pramana). 2. False know 
ledge (Viparyaya). 3. Complex imagination (Vikalpa). 
4. Sleep (Nidra). 5. Memory (Smriti). 

All the manifestations of the mind fall under one or 
other of these five heads. Thus, Pramana includes: 

a. Perception (Pratyaksha). b. Inference (Anu- 
inana). c. Authority (Agama). 

Viparyaya includes: 

a. Ignorance (Avidya, Tamas). b. Egoism (As- 
mita, Moha). c. Retention (Raga, Mahamoha). d. 
Repulsion (Tamisra, Dvesha). c. Tenacity of life 
(Abhinivesha, Andhatamisra). 

The remaining three have no definite subdivisions. 
I shall now show that all the modifications of thought 
are forms of tattvic motion on the mental plane. 

i. MEANS OF KNOWLEDGE (PRAMANA). 
The word Pramana (means of knowledge) is derived 
from two roots, the predicative ma, and the derivative 



THE MIXD. Q~ 

root ana, with the prefix pra. The original idea of 
the root ma, is "to go," "to move," and hence "to 
measure. The prefix pra gives to the root the idea 
of fulness, connected as it is with the root /;/, to fill. 
That which moves exactly up or down to the same 
height with any other thing is the Pramana of that 
thing. In becoming the Pramana of any other thing, 
the first thing assumes certain qualities which it had 
not before. This is always brought about by a change 
of state caused by a certain kind of motion, for it is 
always motion that causes change of state. This, in 
fact, is also the exact meaning of the word Pramana, 
as applied to a particular manifestation of the mind. 

Pramana is a particular tattvic motion of the mental 
body; its effect is to put the mental body into a state 
similar to that of something else. The mind can 
undergo as many changes as the external Tattvas are 
capable of imprinting upon it, and these changes have 
been classified by Patanjali into three general heads. 

a. Perception (Pratyaksha) . 

This is that change of state which the operations of 
the five sensuous organs produce in the mind. The 
word is a compound of prati, back, and aksha, sensuous 
power, organ of sense. Hence is that sympathetic 
tattvic vibration which an organ of sense in contact 
with its object produces in the mind. These changes 
can be classified under five general heads, according 
to the number of the senses. 

The eye gives birth to the Tejas vibrations; the 



9 4 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

tongue, the skin, the ear and the nose respectively to 
the Apas, the Vayu, the Akasha and the Prithivi 
vibrations. The pure Agiii causes the perception of 
red, the Tej as- Prithivi of yellow, the Tejas-Apas of 
white, the Tejas-Vayu of bine, and so on. Other 
colours are produced in the mind by mixed vibrations 
in a thousand varying degrees. The Apas gives soft 
ness, the Vayu roughness, the Agni harshness. We 
see through the eyes not only colour, but also form. 
It will be remembered that a particular Jorm has been 
assigned to every tattvic vibration, and all the forms 
of gross matter answer to corresponding tattvic vibra 
tions. Thus form can be perceived through every 
sense. The eyes can see form, the tongue can taste it, 
the skin can touch it, and so on. This may probably 
appear to be a novel assertion, but it must be remem 
bered that virtue is not limited to its outward expres 
sion or act. The ear would hear form, if the more 
general use of the eye and the skin for this purpose 
had not almost stifled it into inaction. The one form 
is differentiated in at least five modes, and each mode 
calls the same thing by a different name. This is 
aptly illustrated by the physiology of the five sense 
organs. 

The pure Apas vibrations cause an astringent taste, 
the Apas-Prithivi a sweet, the Apas-Agni hot, the 
Apas- Vayu acid, and so on. Innumerable other varia 
tions of taste are caused by intermediate vibrations in 
various degrees. 

The case is similar with the vocal and other changes 



THR MIXD. 95 

of vibration. It is clear that our perceptive knowledge 
is nothing more than a veritable lattvic motion of the 
mental body, caused by the sympathetic communica 
tions of the vibrations of Prana, just as a stringed 
instrument of a certain tension begins to vibrate 
spontaneously when vibration is set up in another 
similar instrument. 

b. Inference (Anuumna). 

The word Anumana has the same roots as the word 
Pramana. The only difference is in the prefix. We 
have here ann, "after," instead of p. Inference 
(Anumana) is therefore after-motion. When the mind 
is capable of sustaining two vibrations at one and the 
same time, then, if either of these vibrations is set up 
and perceived, the second vibration must also manifest 
itself. Thus, suppose a man pinches me. The com 
plex vibrations that make up the perception of the 
action of a man pinching me are produced in my mind. 
I recognize the phenomena. Almost simultaneously 
with these vibrations another set of vibrations is pro 
duced in me. I call this pain. Now here are two 
kinds of tattvic motion, the one coming after the other. 
If at any other time I feel similar pain, the image of 
the man pinching will be recalled to my consciousness. 
This after-motion is "inference." Induction and 
deduction are both modifications of this after-motion. 
For instance the sun always appears to rise in a certain 
direction. The concept of that direction becomes for 
ever associated in my mind with the risincr o f the sun. 



96 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

Whenever I think of the phenomenon of sunrise, the 
concept of that direction presents itself. I therefore 
say that the sun rises as a rule in that direction. 
Inference is, therefore, nothing more than a tattvic 
motion coming after another related one. 

c. Authority (Agama). 

The third modification of what is called the means 
of knowledge (Pramana) is authority (Agama). What 
is this? I read in my geography, or hear from the 
lips of my teacher that Britain is surrounded by the 
ocean. Now what has connected these words in my 
mind with the picture of Britain, the ocean, and their 
mutual relations? Certainly it is not perception, and 
therefore not inference, which must by nature work 
through sensuous knowledge. What then? There 
must be some third modification. 

The fact that words possess the power to raise a 
certain picture in our minds is one of very deep in 
terest. Every Indian philosopher recognizes it as a 
third modification of the mind, but it receives no 
recognition at the hands of modern European philo 
sophy. 

There is, however, little doubt that the colour 
corresponding to this mental modification differs from 
that corresponding to either perception or inference. 
The colour belonging to the perceptive modifications 
of the mind is always single in its nature. A certain 
phase of the Tejas vibration must always prevail in 
the visual modification, and similarly the vibrations 



THE MIND. 97 

of other Tattvas correspond to our different sensuous 
modifications. Each of these manifestations has its 
own distinctive colour. The red will appear as well 
in the visual as in the auditory or any other vibration, 
but the red of the visual vibration will be bright and 
pure; that of the organ of smell will be tinged with 
yellow; that of the organ of touch with blue; and the 
sonoriferous ether will be somewhat dark. There is, 
therefore, not the least likelihood that the vocal vibra 
tion will coincide with the pure perceptive vibration. 
The vocal vibrations are double in their nature, and 
they can only, in any case, coincide with the inferential 
vibrations ; and here, too, they can only coincide with 
the auditory vibrations. A little consideration will, 
however, show that there is some difference between 
the vocal and inferential vibrations. In inference a 
certain modification of sound in our mind is followed 
by a certain visual picture, and both these vibrations 
retain in our mind an equally important position. We 
place two percepts together, compare them, and then 
say that one follows the other. In the verbal modifi 
cation there is no comparison, no simultaneous con 
sciousness, no placing together of the two percepts. 
The one causes the other, no doubt, but we are not at 
all conscious of the fact. In inference the simultaneous 
presence for some time of both the cause and the effect 
brings about a change in the colour of the effect. The 
difference is less great in the vocal as compared with 
the inferential vibration. Axiomatic knowledge is not 
inferential in the present, though it has no doubt been 



o8 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

so in the past; in the present it has become native to 
the mind. 

2. FALSE KNOWLEDGE (VIPARYAYA). 
This is the second mental modification. This word 
also is derived from a root meaning motion i or ay, 
"to go," "to move." The prefix part is connected 
with the root pra, and gives the same idea to the root. 
Paryaya has the same radical meaning as Pramana. 
The word Viparyaya therefore means "a motion 
removed from the motion which coincides with the 
object." The vibrations of Pramana coincide in nature 
with the vibrations of the object of perception; not so 
the vibrations of Viparyaya. Certain acquired condi 
tions of the mind imprint on the percepts a new colour 
of their own, and thus distinguish them from the 
percepts of Pramana. There are five modifications of 
this manifestation. 

a. Ignorance (Avidyd). 

This is the general field for the manifestation of all 
the modifications of Viparyaya (false knowledge). The 
word comes from the root vid, "to know," the prefix 
a, and the suffix ya. The original meaning of the root 
is "to be," "to exist." The original meaning of Vidya 
is, therefore, "the state of a thing as it is," or expressed 
in terms of the mental plane in one word, "knowledge." 
As long as in the face of a human being I see a face 
and nothing else, my mental vibration is said to be 
Vidya. But as soon as I see a moon, or something else 
not a face, when it is a face I am looking at, my mental 



THE MIXD. 



vibration is no longer said to be Vidya, but Avidya. 
Avidya (ignorance) is therefore not a negative concep 
tion, it is just as positive as Vidya itself. It is a great 
mistake to suppose that words having the privative 
prefixes always imply abstractions and never realities. 
This, however, is a digression. The state of Avidya 
s that state in which the mental vibration is disturbed 
by that of Akasha, and some other Tattvas, which 
thus produce false appearances. The general appear 
ance of ^ Avidya is Akasha darkness, and this is why 
Tamas is a. synonym of this word. 

This general prevalence of darkness is caused by 
some defect in individual minds, because, as we find 
from daily experience, a given object does not excite 
the same set of vibrations in all minds. What, then, 
is the mental defect? It is to be found in the nature 
of the stored-up potential energy of the mind. This 
storing up of potential energy is a problem of the 
deepest importance in philosophy, and one in which 
the doctrine of transmigration of souls finds its most 
intelligible explanation. This so-called law of Vasana 
may be enunciated as follows. 

If anything be set in any particular kind of tattvic 
motion internal or external it acquires the capa 
bility, for a second time, of being easily set into the 
same kind of motion and of consequently resisting \ 
different kind. If the thing be subjected to the same 
motion for some time, the motion becomes a necessary 
attribute of the thing. That motion becomes then, 
so to speak, <l second nnture." 



I00 NATURE S FIXER FORCES. 

Thus, if a man accustoms his body to a particular 
form of exercise, certain muscles in his body are very 
easily set in motion. Any other form of exercise that 
requires the use of other muscles will be found fatigu 
ing on account of the resistance set up by muscular 
habits. Similar is the case with the mind. If I have 
a deep-rooted conviction, as some have to this day, that 
the earth is flat and that the sun moves round it, it 
may require ages to alter my belief. A thousand 
examples might be cited of such phenomena. It is, 
however, only necessary in this place to state that the 
capacity of turning easily to one mental state and 
offering resistance to another is what I mean by this 
stored-up energy. It is called Vasana or Sanskara in 
Sanskrit. 

The word Vasana comes from the root vas, "to dwell." 
It means the dwelling or fixing of some form of vibra 
tory motion in the mind. It is by Vasana that certain 
truths become native to the mind, and, not only certain 
so-called truths, but all the so-called natural tendencies 
moral, physical and spiritual become in this way 
native to the mind. The only difference in different 
Vasanas is in their respective stability. Those Vasanas 
which are imprinted upon the mind as the result of the 
ordinary evolutionary course of nature never change. 
The products of independent human actions are of 
two kinds. If action result in tendencies that check 
the evolutionary progressive tide of nature, the effect 
of the action exhausts itself in time by the repellent 
force of the under-current of evolution. If, however, 



THE MIND. I01 

the two coincide in direction, increased strength is the 
result. The latter kind of actions we call virtuous, 
the former vicious. 

It is this Vasana, this temporary dominion of the 
opposite current, that causes false knowledge. Suppose 
the positive current has in any man the strength a; if 
it has presented to it a negative current of the same 
degree of strength the two will try to unite. An at 
traction will then be set up. If these two currents are 
not allowed to unite, they increase in strength, and 
react on the body itself to its injury; if allowed to unite, 
they exhaust themselves. This exhaustion causes a 
relief to the mind, the progressive evolutionary current 
asserts itself with greater force, and thus a feeling of 
satisfaction is the result. This tattvic disturbance of 
the mind will, as long as it has sufficient strength, 
give its own colour to all percepts and concepts. They 
will not appear in their true light, but as causes of 
satisfaction. These causes of satisfaction we call by 
different names. Sometimes we call it a flower, at 
others we call it a moon. Such are the manifes 
tations of Avidya. As Patanjali says, Avidya con- i 
sists in the perception of the eternal, the pure, the 
pleasing and the spiritual in the non-eternal, the im 
pure, the painful, and the non-spiritual. Such is the 
genesis of Avidya, which, as has been remarked, is 
a substantial reality, and not a mere negative con 
ception. 

This mental phenomenon causes the four following 
modifications. 



io2 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

b. Egoism (As)iittd). 

Asmita (egoism) is the conviction that real life 
(Purusha Svara) is one with its various mental and 
physiological modifications, that the higher self is one 
with the lower one, that the sum of our percepts and 
concepts is the real Ego, and that there is nothing 
beyond. In the present cycle of evolution and in the 
previous ones, the mind has chiefly been occupied with 
these percepts and concepts. The real power of life 
is never seen making any separate appearance, hence 
the feeling that the Ego must be the same with the 
mental phenomena. It is plain that Avidya, as defined 
above, lies at the root of this manifestation. 

c. Retention (Rdga). 

The misleading feeling of satisfaction above men 
tioned under Avidya is the cause of this condition. 
When any object repeatedly produces in our mind this 
feeling of satisfaction, our mind engenders the habit of 
falling again and again into the same state of tattvic 
vibration. The feeling of satisfaction and the picture 
of the object which seemed to cause that satisfaction 
tend to appear together, and this is a hankering after 
the object, a desire not to let it escape us that is to 
say, Raga (pleasure). 

We may here investigate more thoroughly the 
nature of this feeling of satisfaction and its opposite- 
pleasure and pain. The Sanskrit words for these two 
mental states are respectively Sukha and Duhkha. 
Both come from the root khan, "to dig"; the prefixes 



THE MIND. 



us and dull make the difference. The former prefix 
conveys the idea of "ease," and it derives this idea 
from the unrestrained easy flow of breath. The radical 
idea of Sukha is, therefore, unrestrained digging 
di ggi" where the soil offers but little resistance. 
Transferred to the mind, that act becomes Sukha, that 
which makes upon it an easy impression. The act 
must, in the nature of its vibrations, coincide with the 
then prevail fug conditions of the mental vibrations. 
Before any percepts or concepts had taken root in the 
mind, there was no desire, no pleasure. The genesis 
both of desire and what is called pleasure that is, the 
sense of satisfaction caused by the impressions pro 
duced by external objects begins with certain percepts 
and concepts, taking root in the mind. This taking 
root is really only an overclouding of the original set 
of impressions arising out of evolutionary mental pro 
gress. When contact with the external object for a 
moment removes that cloud from the clear horizon of 
the mind, the soul is conscious of a feeling of satis 
faction, which, as I have shown, Aviclya connects with 
the external object. This, as shown above, gives birth 
to desire. 

d. Repulsion (Dvcsha). 

Similar is the genesis of pain and the desire to 
repel (Dvesha). The radical idea of Duhkha (pain) 
is the act of digging where a good deal of resistance 
is experienced. Transferred to the mind, it signifies 
an act which encounters resistance from the mind. 



NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

The mind does not easily give place to these vibra 
tions ; it tries to repel them with all its might. Thence 
arises a feeling of privation. It is as if something of 
its nature were being taken away, and an alien pheno 
menon introduced. This consciousness of privation, 
or want, is pain, and the repulsive power which these 
alien vibrations excite in the mind is known by the 
name of Dvesha (desire to repel). The word Dvesha 
comes from the root dvcsli, which is a compound of 
du and tsh; tsh itself appears to be a compound root, 
/ and 5. The final s is Connected with the root su, 
"to breathe," "to be in one s natural state." The root 
i means "to go," and the root ish, therefore, means 
"to go towards one s natural state." Transferred to 
the mind, the word becomes a synonym of Raga. 
The root du in Dvesha performs the same function as 
duh in Duhkha. Hence Dvesha comes to mean a 
" hankering after repulsion." Anger, jealousy, hatred, 
etc., are all modifications of this, as love, affection, 
and friendship are those of Raga. It is easy, by what 
has been said above, to follow up the genesis of the 
principle of "tenacity of life." I must now try to 
assign these actions to their prevailing Tattvas. 

The general colour of Avidya is, as already said, 
that of Akasha, darkness. When, however, Avidya 
is manifested as anger, the Agni Tattva prevails. If 
this be accompanied by motion of the body Va} U is 
indicated. Stubbornness shows as Prithivi and tracta- 
bility as Apas, while the condition of fear and trem 
bling finds expression in Akasha. 



THE MIND. 105 

The Akasha Tattva prevails also in love. Prithivi 
makes it abiding, Vayu changeable, Agni fretting, 
Apas lukewarm, Akasha blind and unreasoning. 

Akasha tends to produce a hollow in the veins 
themselves, hence its prevalence in fear. Prithivi 
roots the timid man to the spot, Vayu lends him 
craven wings, Apas opens his ears to flattery, and 
Agni heats the blood for revenge. 

3. COMPLEX IMAGINATION (VncAi.pA). 

I turn now to Vikalpa. This is that knowledge 
which, though capable of being embodied in words, 
has no reality on the physical plane. The sounds of 
nature connected with its sight have given us names 
for percepts. With the additions or subtractions of 
the percepts we have also had additions and subtrac 
tions of the sounds connected therewith. The sounds 
constitute our words. 

In Vikalpa two or more percepts are added together 
in such a way as to give birth to a concept having no 
corresponding reality on the physical plane. This is 
a necessary result of the universal law of Vasana. 
When the mind is habituated to the perception of 
more phenomena than one, all of them have a tendency 
lo appear again; and whenever two or more such 
phenomena coincide in time, we have in our mind a 
picture of a third something. That something may 
or may not exist in the physical plane. If it does 
not, the phenomenon is Vikalpa. If, however, it does, 
we call it Samadhi. 



io6 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

4. SLEEP (NIDRA). 

This also is a phenomenon of the Manomaya Kosha 
(mind). Indian philosophers speak of three states in 
this connection Waking, Dream, Sleep. 

a. Waking. 

Tli is is the ordinary state when the principle of life 
works in connection with the mind. The mind, then, 
through the action of the senses, receives impressions 
of the external objects. The other faculties of the 
mind are purely mental, and they may work in the 
waking as in the dreaming state. The only difference 
is that in dreams the mind does not undergo the per 
ceptive changes. How is this? These changes of 
state are always passive, and the soul has no choice 
in being subjected to them. They come and go as a 
necessary result of the working of Svara in all its five 
modifications. As has been explained in the article 
on Prana, the different sensuous organs cease to re 
spond to external tattvic changes when the positive 
current gains more than ordinary strength in the body. 
The positive force appears to us in the shape of heat, 
the negative in the shape of cold. I may, therefore, 
in future term these forces heat and cold. 

b. Dream. 

The Upanishad says that in dreamless sleep the 
soul sleeps in the blood-vessels (Nadis), the peri 
cardium (Puritat) and the hollow of the heart. Has 
the system of blood-vessels the negative centre of 
Prana, anything to do with dream also? The state of 



THE MIND. IO7 

dream, according to the Indian sage, is an intermediate 
one between waking and sleeping, and it is but reason 
able to suppose that there must be something in this 
system which accounts for both these phenomena. 
What is that something? It is variously spoken of as 
the Pitta, the Agni, and the Sun. It is needless to 
say that these words are meant to denote one and the 
same thing. It is the effect produced on the body by 
the solar breath in general, and the Agni Tattva in 
particular. The word Pitta may mislead many, and 
it is, therefore, necessary to state that the word does 
not always mean "lull." There is one Pitta which 
Sanskrit physiology locates specially in the heart. 
This is called the Sadhaka Pitta. It is nothing more 
nor less than cardiac temperature, and it is with this 
that we have to do in sleep or dream. 

According to the Indian philosopher, it is the car 
diac temperature that causes the three states in vary 
ing degrees. This, and nothing more, is the meaning 
of the Vedic text, which says that the soul sleeps in 
the pericardium, etc. All the functions of life are 
carried on properly as long as we have a perfect 
balance of the positive and negative currents heat 
and cold. The mean of the solar and lunar tempera 
tures is the temperature at which the Prana keeps up 
its connection with the gross body. The mean is 
struck after an exposure of a whole day and night. 
Within this period the temperature is subjected to 
two general variations. The one is the extreme of 
the positive; the other the extreme of the negative. 



io8 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

When the positive reaches its daily extreme the ac 
tions of the sense organs are no longer synchronous 
with the modification of the external Tattvas. 

It is a matter of daily experience that the sensuous 
organs respond to external tattvic vibrations within 
certain limits. If the limit is exceeded either way, 
the organs become insensible to these vibrations. 
There is, therefore, a certain degree of temperature 
at which the sensuous organs can ordinarily work, 
but when this limit is exceeded either way the organs 
become incapable of receiving any impression from 
without. During day the positive life current gathers 
strength in the heart. The ordinary physical mood is 
naturally altered by this gathering up of the force, 
and, as a result, the senses sleep. They receive no 
impression from without. This is sufficient to pro 
duce the dreaming state. As yet the chords of the 
gross body (Sthula Sharira) have alone slackened; the 
soul sees the mind no longer affected by external 
impressions. The mind is, however, habituated to 
various percepts and concepts, and by the mere force 
of habit passes into various states. The breath, as it 
differentiates into the five tattvic states, becomes the 
cause of the varying impressions coming up. The 
soul, as already said, plays no part in calling up these 
visions. It is by the working of a necessary law of 
life that the mind undergoes the various changes of 
the waking and the sleeping states. The soul does 
nothing in conjuring up the phantasms of a dream, 
otherwise it would be impossible to explain horrible 



THE MIND. 109 

dreams. Why, indeed, if the soul is entirely free in 
dreaming, docs it sometimes call into existence the 
hideous appearances which, with one terrible shock, 
seem to send our very blood back to our heart? No 
soul would ever act thus if it could help it. 

The fact is that the impressions of a dream change 
with the Tattvas. As one Tattva easily glides into 
another, one thought gives place to another. The 
A kasha causes fear, shame, desire, anger; the Vayu 
takes us to different places, the Tejas shows us gold 
and silver, the Prithivi may bring us enjoyment, 
smiles, dalliance, and so on. And then we may 
have composite tattvic vibrations. We may see 
men and women, dances and battles, councils and 
popular gatherings; we may walk in gardens, smell 
the choicest flowers, see the most beautiful spots; we 
may shake hands with our friends, we may deliver 
speeches, or travel into distant lands. All these im 
pressions are caused by the tattvic state of the mental 
coil, brought about either by (i) physical derange 
ment, (2) ordinary tattvic changes, or (3) some other 
natural change of state. 

As there are three different causes, there are three 
different kinds of dreams. The first cause is physical 
derangement. When the natural currents of Prana 
are disturbed so that disease results, or are about to be 
so disturbed, the mind in the ordinary way undergoes 
these tattvic changes. The sympathetic chords of the 
mind are excited, and we dream of all the disagreeable 
accompaniments of whatever disease may be in store for 



no NATURE S FINKR FORCES. 

us within our physical atmosphere. Such dreams are 
akin in their nature to the ravings of delirium; the 
only difference lying in strength and violence. When 
ill, we may in a similar way dream of health and its 
surroundings. 

The second kind of dream is caused by ordinary 
tattvic changes. When the past, the present, and the 
future tattvic conditions of our surroundings are uni 
form in their nature, when there is no change, and when 
no change is in store for us, the stream of dreams is most 
calm and equable in its easy flow. As the atmospheric 
and the healthful physiological Tattvas glide smoothly 
one into the other, so do the impressions of our minds 
in this class of dreams. Ordinarily we cannot even 
remember these dreams, for in them there is nothing 
of special excitement to keep them in our memory. 

The third kind of change is similar to the first, the 
difference lying only in the nature of the effects. These 
we call the effects of disease or health, as the case may 
be; here we might group the results under the general 
names of prosperity or calamity. 

The process of this sort of mental excitement is, 
however, the same in both. The currents of life preg 
nant with all sorts of good and evil, are sufficient in 
strength, while yet potential and only tending towards 
the actual, to set the sympathetic chords of the mind in 
vibration. The purer the mind, and the freer from dust 
of the world, the more sensitive is it to the slightest 
and remotest tendency of Prana towards some change. 
We consequently become conscious of coining events 



THE MIND. IIT 

in dreams. This explains the nature of prophetic 
dreams. To weigh, however, the force of these dreams, 
U> find out exactly what each dream means, is a most 
difficult, and, under ordinary circumstances, I may say, 
a quite impossible task. We may make ten thousand 
mistakes at every step, and we need nothing less than 
a perfect Yogi for the right understanding of even our 
own dreams, to say nothing of those of others. Let 
us explain and illustrate the difficulties which surround 
us in the right understanding of our dreams. A man 
in the same quarter of the city in which I live, but 
unknown to me, is about to die. Pregnant with death, 
the tattvic currents of his body disturb the atmospheric 
Tattvas, and are through their instrumentality spread 
in various degrees of strength all over the world. 
They reach me too, and when I am sleeping excite the 
sympathetic chords of the mind. Now as there is no 
special room in my mind for that man, my impression 
will only be general. A human being, fair or ugly, 
thin or fat, male or female, lamented or not, and 
having other like qualities, will come into the mind 
as on his death-bed. But what man? The power of 
complex imagination, unless kept in check by the most 
rigorous exercise of Yoga, will have its play, and it is 
almost certain that a man who has previously been 
connected in my mind with all these tattvic qualities, 
will make his appearance in my consciousness. It is 
evident I shall be on the wrong track. That someone 
is dead or dying, we may be sure, but who or where 
it is impossible for ordinary men to discover. And not 



ii2 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

only does the manifestation of Vikalpa put us on the 
wrong track, all the manifestations of the mind do 
that. The state of Samadhi, which is nothing more 
than putting one s self into a state of the most perfect 
amenability to tattvic surroundings, is therefore im 
possible unless all the other manifestations are held 
in perfect check. "Yoga," says Patanjali, "is keeping 
in check the manifestations of the mind." But to 
resume. 

c. Deep Sleep (Snshnpti). 

The dreaming state is maintained as long as the 
cardiac temperature is not strong enough to affect the 
mental coil. But with increasing positive strength that 
too must be affected. The Manas and the Prana are 
made of the same materials and are subject to the same 
laws. The more subtle, however, these materials are, 
the stronger must be the forces that produce similar 
changes. All the coils are tuned together, and changes 
in the one affect the other. The vibrations per second 
of the first one are, however, greater in number than 
those of the lower one, and this causes its subtlety. 
The higher are always affected through the imme 
diately lower principles. Thus the external Tattvas 
will affect Prina directly, but the mind can only be 
affected through the Prana and indirectly. The cardiac 
temperature is only an indication of the degree of heat 
in Prana. When sufficient is gathered up there, the 
Prana having acquired sufficient strength, affects the 
mental coil. That too now passes out of tune with 



THE MIND. IT , 

the soul. Moreover, the mental vibrations are at rest, 
for the mind can only work at a certain temperature, 
beyond which it must go to rest. In this state we 
have no more dreams. The only manifestation of the 
mind is that of rest. This is the state of dreamless 
sleep. 

I pass on now to the fifth and last mental manifesta 
tion. 

5. RETENTION, MEMORY (SMRITI). 

As Professor Max Miiller has remarked, the original 
idea of the root sinri (from which Smriti) is "to make 
soft, to melt." The process of making soft or melting 
consists in the melting thing assuming a consistency 
nearer and nearer to the tattvic consistency of the 
melting force. All change of state is equivalent to 
the assumption by the thing changing O f the state of 
Tattva which causes the change. Hence the secondary 
idea of the root, "to love." Love is that state of the 
mind in which it melts into the state of the object of 
love. This change is analogous to the chemical change 
that gives us a photograph on a sensitive plate. As in 
this phenomenon the materials on the sensitive plate 
are melted into the state of the reflected light, so the 
sensitive plate of the mind melts into the state of its 
percepts. The impression upon the mind is deeper, 
the greater the force of the imprinting rays and the 
greater the sympathy between the mind and the object 
perceived. This sympathy is created by stored-up 
potential energy, and the perceptive rays themselves act 



ii4 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

with greater force when the mind is in a sympathetic 
state. 

Every percept takes root in the mind, as explained 
above. It is nothing more than a change of the tattvic 
state of the mind, and what is left behind is only a 
capacity for falling into the same state more easily 
again. The mind falls back into the same state when it 
is under the influence of the same tattvic surroundings. 
The presence of the same things calls back the same 
mental state. 

The tattvic surroundings may be of two descriptions 
astral and local. The astral influence is the effect 
upon the individual Prana of the then condition of the 
terrestrial Prana. If this effect appears as the Agni 
Tattva, those of our concepts which have a prominent 
connection with this Tattva will make their appearance 
in the mind. Some of these are a hankering after 
wealth, a desire of progeny, etc. If we have the Vayu 
Tattva, a desire to travel may take possession of our 
minds, and so on. A minute tattvic analysis of all our 
concepts is of the greatest interest; suffice it, however, 
to say here that the tattvic condition of Prana often 
calls up into the mind objects which have been in 
similar previous conditions the objects of perception. 
It is this power, as already shown, that underlies dreams 
of one class. In the waking state, too, this phase of 
memory often acts as reminiscence. 

Local surroundings are constituted by those objects 
which the mind has been accustomed to perceive 
together with the immediate object of memory. This 



THK MIXD. Tr c 

is the power of association. Both these phenomena 
constitute memory proper (Smrilh. Here the object 
conit-s first into the mind, and afterwards the act and 
the surroundings of perception. Another very impor 
tant kind of memory is what is called Buddhi, literary 
memory. This is the power by which we call to mind 
what we have learnt of scientific facts. The process 
of storing up these facts in the mind is the same, but 
the coming back into consciousness differs in this, that 
here the act comes into the mind first and then the 
object. All the five Tattvas and the foregoing- mental 
phenomena may cause the phenomenon of memory. 
Literary memory has a good deal to do with Yoga, i.e., 
the exercise of free will to direct the energies of the 
mind into desirable channels. While those impressions 
which take root in the mind on account of natural 
surroundings make the mind the unwilling slave of 
the external world, Buddhi may lead it to bliss and 
freedom. But will these tattvic surroundings always 
bring related phenomena into consciousness? No; 
this depends upon their correlative strength. It is 
\yell known that when the vibrations per second of 
Akasha (sound) pass beyond a certain limit either way, 
they do not affect the tympanum. Similar is the case 
with the other Tattvas. It is, for example, only a 
certain number of vibrations per second of the Tejas 
Tattva which affects the eye, and similarly, mutatis 
mutandis, with the other senses. The same is the 
case with the mind. It is only when the mental and 
external tattvic tensions are equal that the mind begins 



n6 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

to vibrate as it comes into contact witli the external 
world. Just as the varying states of the external 
organs make us more or less sensitive to ordinary 
sensation, so different men might not hear the same 
sounds, might not see the same sights, the mental 
Tattvas might not be affected by percepts of different 
strength, or might be affected in different degrees by- 
percepts of the same strength. The question is, how is 
the variation of this mental tattvic strength produced? 
By exercise, and the absence of exercise. If we accus 
tom the mind, just as we do the body, to any particular 
percept or concept, the mind turns easily to those 
percepts and concepts. If, however, we give up the 
exercise, the mind becomes stiff and ceases by degrees 
to respond to those percepts and concepts. This is 
the phenomenon of forgetting. Let a student whose 
literary exercise is just opening the buds of his mind, 
which is just gaining strength enough to see into the 
causes and effects of things, give up his exercise. His 
mind will begin to lose that nice perception. The 
stiffer the mind becomes the less will the causal rela 
tion affect him, and the less he will know of it, until 
at last he loses all his power. 

Ceaseless influence and activity of one sort being 
impossible in the ordinary course of nature, every 
impression tends to pass away as soon as it is made. 
Its degree of stability depends upon the duration of 
the exercise. 

But although activity of one sort is impracticable, 
activity of some sort is always present in the mind. 



THE MINI). 



With every action the colour of the mind changes, 
and one colour may take so deep a root in the mind as 
to remain there for ages upon ages, to say nothing of 
minutes, hours, days, and years. Just as time takes 
ages to demolish the impressions of the physical plane, 
just as marks of incision upon the skin may not pass 
away in even two decades, so also it takes ages to 
demolish the impressions of the mind. Hundreds and 
thousands of years might thus be spent in Devachan 
in order to wear away those antagonistic impressions 
which the mind has contracted in earthly life. By 
antagonistic impressions, I mean those impressions 
which are not compatible with the state of Moksha, 
and have about them a tinge of earthly life. 

With every moment the mind changes its colour, 
whether by increase or by diminution of vibration. 
These changes are temporary. But there is at the 
same time a permanent change going on in the colour 
of the mind. With every little act of our worldly 
experience, the evolutionary tide of progress is gaining 
strength, and passing into variety. The colour is con 
stantly changing. But the same general colour is 
maintained under ordinary circumstances, during one 
earthly life. Under extraordinary circumstances we 
may have men having two memories. Under such 
circumstances, as in the case of approaching death, the 
accumulated forces of a whole life combine into a 
different colour. The tension, so to speak, becomes 
different from what it was before. Nothing can put 
the mind into the same state again. This general 



u8 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

colour of the mind differing from that of other minds, 
and yet retaining its general character for a whole life, 
gives us the consciousness of personal identity. In 
every act which has been done, or which is, or may 
be done, the soul sees the same general colour, and 
hence the feeling of personal identity. In death the 
general colour changes, and although we have the 
same mind, we have a different consciousness. Hence 
no continuance of the feeling of personal identity is 
possible through death. 

Such is a brief account of the Manomaya Kosha, 
the mental coil in the ordinary state. The influence 
of the higher principle (the Vijnanamaya Kosha) 
through the exercise of Yoga induces in the mind a 
number of other manifestations. Psychic manifesta 
tions show themselves in the mind and the Prana, in 
the same way as mental manifestations are seen in 
fluencing and regulating the latter. 

The universe, as has been seen, has five planes of 
existence (which may also be divided into seven). 
The forms of the earth, which are little pictures of 
the universe, have also the same five planes. In 
some of these organisms the higher planes of exist 
ence are absolutely latent. In man, in the present 
age, the Vijnauamaya Kosha and the lower principles 
make their appearance. 

We have now had an insight into the nature of the 
macrocosmic Prana, and we have seen also that almost 
every point in this ocean of life represents a separate 
individual organism. 



THK MIND. 119 

Similar is the case with the maciocosmic mind. 
Every Truti of that centre in the same way takes in the 
whole of the macrocosmic mind. From every point 
the tattvic rays of the mental ocean go to every point, 
and thus every point is a little picture of the universal 
mind. This is the individual mind. 

The universal mind is the original of all the centres 
of Prana, in the same way as the solar Prana is the 
original of the species of earth-life. Individual mind, 
too, is similarly the original of all the individual mani 
festations of the Pranamaya Kosha. Similarly the 
soul, and on the highest plane, the individual spirit, 
is the perfect picture of all that comes below. 

With the four higher planes of life there are four 
different states of consciousness, the waking, the 
dreaming, the sleeping and the Turiya. 

With these remarks the following extract from the 
Prashnopanishad will be intelligible and instructive. 

"Now Sauryayana Gargya asked him, Sir, in this 
body, what sleeps, and what remains awakened? 
Which of these luminous beings sees dreams? Who 
has this rest? In whom do all these [manifestations] 
rest in the potential unmanifested state? 1 

"lie answered him, () Gargya, as the rays of the 
setting sun are all collected in the luminous sheath, and 
then again go out, as he rises again and again, so all 
that is collected in the luminous sheath of mind 
beyond. For this reason then, the man does not hear, 
does not see, does not smell, does not taste, does not 
touch, . . . does not take, does not cohabit, does 



120 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

not excrete, does not go. They say that he sleeps. 
The fires of the Prana alone remain awakened in this 
body. The Apana is the Garhapatya fire; the Vyana 
is the right hand fire. The Prana is the Ahavaniya 
fire, which is made by the Garhapatya. That which 
carries equally everywhere the oblations of food and 
air, is the Samana. The mind (Manas) is the sacri- 
ficer (Vajamana). The Udana is the fruit of the sacri 
fice. He carries the sacrificer every day to Brahma. 
Here this luminous being [the mind] enjoys great 
things in dreams. Whatever was seen, he sees again 
as if it were real; whatever was heard, he hears 
as if it were real; whatever was experienced in dif 
ferent countries, in different directions, he experiences 
the same again and again the seen or the unseen, 
the heard or the unheard, thought or not thought 
upon. He sees all, appearing as the self of all mani 
festations. 

" When he is overpowered by the Tejas, then this 
luminous being sees no dreams in this state; then there 
appears in the body this rest [the dreamless sleep]. 

"In this state, my dear pupil, all [that is enume 
rated below], stays in the ulterior Atma, like birds that 
resort to a tree for habitation the Prithivi composite* 
and the Prithivi non-composite; the Apas composite 
and the Apas non-composite; the Tejas composite and 
the Tejas non-composite; the Vayu composite and the 

* By composite I mean that Tattva which has come into exist 
ence after the division into five, noticed in the first essay. The 
non-composite means a Tattva before the division into five. 



THK MIND. 



121 



Vayu non-composite; the Akasha composite and the 
.A kasha non-composite; the sight and the visible, the 
hearing and the audible, the smell and that which 
may be smelt, the taste and that which may be tasted, 
the touch and the tangible, the speech and the utter- 
able, the hands and whatever may be grasped, the 
generative organ and the enjoyable, the excretive 
organ and the excrements, the feet and that which 
may be gone over, the faculty and the object of doubt, 
the faculty and the object of ascertainment, the faculty 
and the object of egoism, the faculty and the object of 
memory, the light and that which may be enlightened, 
the Prana and that which it keeps together. 

The soul is the Vijnana Atma, the seer, the 
toucher, the hearer, the smeller, the taster, the doubter, 
ihe ascertainer, the agent. This soul [the Vijnana 
Atma] stays in the ulterior, unchangeable Atma [the 
Ananda]. 

"So there are four Atmas the life, the mind, the 
soul, the spirit. The ultimate force which lies at the 
root of macrocosmic power of the manifestations of 
soul, mind, and the life-principle, is the spirit. " 

The principal interest of this quotation lies in pre 
senting in authoritative fashion the views which have- 
already been propounded. The next essay touches 
upon some important truths and explains one of the 
most important functions of the macrocosmic power 
and mind, viz., that of recording human actions. 



VI. 
THE COSMIC PICTURE-GALLERY. 

WE are directed by our Guru in the philosophy of 
the Tattvas to look into vacant space toward the sky, 
when the horizon is perfectly clear, and fix the atten 
tion there with the utmost possible strength. 

We are told that after sufficient practice we shall 
see there a variety of pictures the most beautiful 
landscapes, the most gorgeous palaces of the world, 
and men, women and children in all the varying 
aspects of life. How is such a thing possible? What 
do we learn by this practical lesson in the science of 
attention ? 

I think I have described in the essays with sufficient 
explicitness the ocean of Prana with the sun for its 
centre, and have given a hint sufficiently suggestive 
of the nature of the macrocosmic mental and psychic 
atmospheres. It is of the essential nature of these 
atmospheres that every point therein forms a centre of 
action and reaction for the whole ocean. From what 
has been said already, it will be plain that each of 
these atmospheres has a limit of its own. The terres 
trial atmosphere extends only to a few miles, and the 
external boundary line of this sphere must, it will 



COSMIC PICTURK-GAI.LERV. 133 

be readily understood, give it the appearance of an 
orange, just like that of the earth. The case is the 
same with the solar Prana, and the higher atmo 
spheres. To begin with the terrestrial Prana, which 
has the measured limits of our atmosphere, every little 
atom of our earth, and of the most perfect organism, 
as well as the most imperfect, makes a centre of action 
and reaction for the tattvic currents of terrestrial 
Prana. The Prana has the capability of being thrown 
into the shape of every organism, or, to use a different 
expression, the rays of Prana, as they fall upon every 
organism are returned from that organism according to 
the well-known laws of reflection. These rays, as is 
again well known, carry within themselves the pictures 
of the objects upon which they may have fallen. Bear 
ing these within them, they go up to the limit of the 
terrestrial Prana noted above. It will be easy to con 
ceive that within the imaginary sphere which sur 
rounds our terrestrial Prana, we have now a magnified 
picture of our central organism. Not one organism 
only, but all the smallest points; the most imperfect 
beginnings of organized life, as well as the most per 
fect organisms all are pictured in this imaginary 
sphere. It is a magnificent picture-gallery, all that is 
seen or heard, touched, tasted, or smelt on the face of 
this earth has a glorious and magnified picture there. 
At the limit of this terrestrial Prana, the picture- 
forming tattvic rays exercise a double function. 

First they throw the sympathetic tattvic chords of 
the solar Prana into similar motion. That is to say, 



124 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

these pictures are now consigned to the solar Prana, 
whence in due course they reach step by step to the 
universal intelligence itself. 

Secondly, these rays react upon themselves, and 
turning from the limiting sphere, are again reflected 
back to the centre. 

It is these pictures which the attentive mind sees in 
its noonday gaze into vacancy, and it is these pictures, 
seen in this mysterious way, which give us the finest 
food for our imagination and intellect, and supply us 
with a far-reaching clue to the nature and working of 
the laws which govern the life of the macrocosm and 
the microcosm. For these pictures tell us that the 
smallest of our actions, on whatever plane of our exist 
ence, actions which may be so insignificant as to pass 
unnoticed even by ourselves, are destined to receive 
an everlasting record, as the effect of the past and the 
cause of the future. These pictures, again, tell us of 
the existence of the five universal Tattvas, which play 
so important a part in the universe. It is these pictures 
which lead us to the discovery of the manifold consti 
tution of man and the universe, and of those powers 
of the mind which have not yet received recognition 
at the hands of the official science of the day. 

That these truths have found place in the Upani- 
shads may be seen from the following quotation from 
the Ishopanishad (Mantra 4) : 

"The Atma does not move; is one; is swifter than 
the mind; the senses reach it not; as it is the foremost 
in motion. It goes beyond the others in rapid motion 



THK COSMIC PICTURE-GALLERY. 125 

while itself at rest, in it the Recorder preserves the 
actions." 

In the above quotation it is the word Matarishva 
that I translate "Recorder." Ordinarily the word is 
translated as "air," and so far as I know, the word has 
never been understood clearly in the sense of the 
"Recorder." My view, therefore, may be further ex 
plained with advantage. 

The word is a compound of the words mdtari and 
svah. The word mdtari is the locative case of mdtri 
which ordinarily means "mother," but which is here 
rendered as space, as the substratum of distance, from 
the root md, to measure. The second word of the com 
pound means "the breather," coming as it does from 
the root svati, to breathe. Hence the compound means 
"he who breathes in space." In explaining this word 
the commentator Shankaracharya goes on to say : 

"The word Matarishva, which has been derived 
as above, means the Vayu [the mover] which carries 
in it all the manifestations of Prana, which is action 
itself. This Prana is the substratum of all the groups 
of causes and effects, and in it all the causes and effects 
are held like beads on a thread, hence it is given the 
name of Sutra [the thread] inasmuch as it holds in 
itself the whole of the world." 

It is further said that the "actions" which this 
Matarishva holds in itself, in the above quotation, are 
all the movements of the individualized Prana, as 
well as are the actions of heating, lighting, burning, 
etc., of the macrocosmic powers known as Agni, etc. 



126 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

Now such a thing can by no means be the atmo 
spheric air. It is evidently that phase of Prana which 
carries the pictures of all actions and all motions 
from every point of space to every other point, and to 
the limits of the Siirya-mandala. This phase of Prana 
is nothing more nor less than the Recorder. It holds 
in itself for ever and ever all the causes and effects, 
the antecedents and consequents of this world of 
ours. 

It is action itself. This means that all action is a 
change of phase of Prana. 

It is said in the above quotation that this Recorder 
lives in the Atma. Inasmuch as the Atma exists, 
this power always performs its function. The Prana 
draws its life itself from the Atma, and we accordingly 
find a similarity between the qualities of the two. It 
is said of the Atma in the above extract that it does 
not move, and yet it moves faster than the mind. 
These appear to be contradictory qualities at the first 
sight, and it is such qualities which make the ordinary 
Ciod of common-place theologians the absurd being 
he always looks. Let us, however, apply these quali 
ties to Prana, and once understood on this plane, they 
will be quite as clearly understood on the highest 
plane, the Atma. It has been said more than once 
that from every point of the ocean of Prana the tattvic 
rays fly in every direction, to every point within the 
Surya-mandala. Thus the ocean of Prana is in 
eternal motion. For all this, however, does one point 
of this ocean ever change its place? Of course not. 



THE COSMIC PICTURE-GALLERY. 127 

Thus \vhile every point keeps its place, every point 
at the same time goes and shows itself in every other 
point. 

It is in the same simple way that the all-pervading 
Atina is in eternal motion and yet always at rest. 

Similar is the case with all the planes of life, all our 
actions, all our thoughts, all our aspirations, receive an 
everlasting record in the books of Matarishva. 

I must now notice these pictures a little more in 
detail. The science of photography tells us that under 
certain conditions the visual pictures can be caught 
on the plane of the sensitive film. But how can we 
account for the reading of letters at a distance of thirty 
miles or more? Such phenomena are to me a matter 
of personal experience. Very lately, while sitting 
abstracted, or it may be in a kind of dream, about four 
o clock in the morning, I read a post-card written by 
a friend to a friend about me, the very same night, at a 
distance of almost thirty miles. One thing more must, 
I think, be noticed here. Almost half the card spoke 
about me, the rest referred to other matters which 
might have merely a passing interest for me. Now 
the rest of the card did not come before my mind s eye 
very clearly, and I felt that with all my effort I could 
not keep my eye upon those lines for a sufficiently 
long time to understand them, but was irresistibly 
drawn towards the paragraph which spoke of me, and 
which I could read very clearly. Four days after this 
the addressee of the card showed it to me; it was 
exactly the same, sentence by sentence (so far as I 



128 NATURE S FINKR FORCES. 

could remember), as I had seen before. I mention 
this phenomenon in particular, as in it the various 
requisites for the production of these phenomena are 
clearly denned. We adduce from an analysis of this 
incident the following points : 

1. The writer of the card meant when he was 
writing that I should read the card, and especially the 
paragraph which concerned me. 

2. I was very anxious to know the news about me 
which that card contained. 

3. Of the frame of mind mentioned above in which 
my friend wrote the card, what was the result? The 
picture of his thoughts on the card, both on the physi 
cal and mental plane, flew in every direction along the 
tattvic rays of the macrocosmic Praua and mind. A 
picture was immediately made on the macrocosmic 
spheres, and from thence it bent its rays towards the 
destination of the post-card. No doubt all minds in 
the whole earth received a shock of this current of 
thought at the same time. But my mind alone was 
sensitive to the card and the news it contained. It 
was, therefore, on my mind alone that any impression 
was made. The rays were, as it were, refracted into 
my mind, and the result described above followed. 

It follows from this illustration that in order to 
receive the pictorial rays of the Prana we must have 
a mind in a state of sympathy, and not of antipathy ; 
that is to say, a mind free from all action or intense 
feeling for the time being is the fitting receptacle for 
the pictorial representations of the cosmos, and so for 



THK COb-MIC PICTURE-GALLERY. 129 

a correct knowledge of the past and the future. And 
if we have an intense desire to know the thing, so 
much the better for us. It is in this way that the 
spiritual occultist reads the records of the past in the 
book of nature, and it is on this road that the beginner 
in this science must walk according to the direction of 
his Guru. 

To return to our explanations. It must be under 
stood that everything in ever}- aspect that has been, 
or is in being on our planet lias a legible record in the 
book of nature, and the tattvic rays of the Prana and 
the mind are constantly bringing the outlines of these 
pictures back to us. It is to a great extent due to this 
that the past never leaves us, but always lives within 
us, although many of its most magnificent monuments 
have been for ever effaced from the surface of our 
planet for the ordinary gaze. These returning rays are 
always inclined towards the centre which originally gave 
them birth. In the case of the mineral surroundings 
of terrestrial phenomena these centres are preserved 
intact for ages upon ages, and it is quite possible 
for any sensitive mind, at any time, to turn these 
rays towards itself by coming into contact with any 
material remains of historic phenomena. A stone 
unearthed at Pompeii is pictured as part of the great 
event which destroyed the city, and the rays of that 
picture are naturally inclined towards that piece of 
stone. If Mrs. Denton puts the stone to her forehead, 
a sympathetic and receptive condition is the only pre 
requisite for the transference of the whole picture to 



130 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

her mind. This sympathetic state of mind may be 
natural to a person, or it may be acquired, but as re 
gards the term "natural" it may be mentioned that 
what we are in the habit of calling natural powers are 
really acquired, but they have been acquired in pre 
vious incarnations. Says Shiva: 

"There are some to whom Tattvas become known, 
when the mind is purified by habituation, either by 
the acquired rapidity of other births or by the kind 
ness of the Guru." 

It seems that two pieces of granite, the same to all 
intents and purposes externally, may have an entirely 
different tattvic colour, for the colour of a thing de 
pends to a very great extent upon its tattvic surround 
ings. It is this occult colour which constitutes the 

o 

real soul of things, although the reader must by this 
time know that the Sanskrit word Prana is more 
appropriate. 

It is no myth to say that the practised Yogi may 
with a single effort of his will bring the picture of any 
part of the world, past or present, before his mind s eye 
and not only visual pictures, as our illustration might 
lead the reader to think. The preservation and forma 
tion of visual pictures is only the work of the liimini- 
ferous ether the Tejas Tattva. The other Tattvas 
perform their functions as well. The Akasha or sono- 
riferous ether preserves all the sounds that have ever 
been heard or are being heard on earth, and similarly 
do the three others preserve the records of the remain 
ing sensations respectively. We see, therefore, that 



TIIK COSMIC PICTFRK-GALLERV. 131 

combining all these pictures, a Yogi in contemplation 
may have before his mind s eve any man at any 
distance whatsoever and may hear his voice also. 
Glyndon, in Italy, seeing and hearing the conversa 
tion of Viola and Zanoni in their distant home, is 
therefore not merely a dream of the poet, but a scien 
tific reality. The only thing necessary is to have a 
sympathetic mind. The phenomena of mental tele 
graphy, psychometry, clairvoyance, clairandicnce, are 
all phases of this tattvic action. Once understood it 
is all a very simple affair. It may be useful in this 
place to offer some reflections as to how these pictorial 
representations of a man s present go to shape his 
future. I shall first attempt to show how complete 
the record is. I may at the outset remind the reader 
of what was said above about the tattvic colour of 
even-thing. It is this which gives individuality even 
to a piece of stone. 

This pictorial whole is only the cosmic counterpart 
of the individual Pranamaya Kosha or the coil of life. 
It is possible that anyone who may not have thoroughly 
understood the manner of the storing up of tattvic 
energy in the individual Prana, may more easily com 
prehend the phenomena in its cosmic counterpart. In 
fact, the macrocosmic and microcosmic phenomena are 
both links of the same chain, and both will conduce 
to the thorough understanding of the whole. Suppose 
a man stands on a mountain, with the finest prospect 
of nature stretched out before his eyes. As he stands 
there contemplatino- this wealth of beauty, his picture 



132 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

in this posture is at once made in the ecliptic. Not 
only is his external appearance pictured, but the hue 
of his life receives the fullest representation. If the 
Agni Tattva prevails in him at that moment, if there 
is the light of satisfaction in his face, if the look in 
his eyes is calm, collected, and pleasant, if he is so 
much absorbed in the gaze as to forget everything else, 
Tattvas separate or in composition will do their duty, 
and all the satisfaction, calmness, pleasure, attention 
or inattention will, to the finest possible shade, be 
represented in the sphere of the ecliptic. If he walks 
or runs, comes down or goes up, the tattvic rays of 
Prana with the utmost faithfulness picture the gene 
rating and the generated colours in the same retentive 
sphere. 

A man stands with a weapon in his hand, with the 
look of cruelty in his eyes, with the glow of inhumanity 
in his veins, his victim, man or animal, helpless or 
struggling before him. The whole phenomenon is 
instantaneously recorded. There stands the murderer 
and the victim in their truest possible colours, there is 
the solitary room or jungle, the dirty shed or the filthy 
slaughter-house; all are there as surely and certainly 
as they are in the eye of the murderer or the victim 

himself. 

Let us again change the scene. We have a liar 
before us. He tells a lie, and thereby injures some 
brother man. No sooner is the word uttered than the 
Akasha sets to work with all possible activity. There 
we have the most faithful representation. The liar is 



THE COSMIC PICTURE-GALLERY. 133 

there from the reflection which the thought of the 
injured person throws into the individual Prana; there 
is the injured man also. The words are there with all 
the energy of the contemplated wrong. And if that 
contemplated wrong is completed, there is also the 
change for worse which his mendacity has produced in 
the victim. There is nothing in fact of the surround 
ings, the antecedents and the consequent postures 
the causes and effects which is not there represented. 

The scene changes, and we come to a thief. Let the 
night be as dark as it may, let the thief be as circum 
spect and wary as he can, our picture is there with 
all its colours well defined, though not perhaps so 
prominent. The time, the house, the wall with a hole, 
the sleeping and injured inmates, the stolen property, 
the subsequent day, the sorrowful householders, with all 
the antecedent and consequent situations, are pictured. 
And this is not only for the murderer, the thief, the 
liar, but for the adulterer, the forger, the villain who 
thinks his crime hidden from every human eye. Their 
deeds, like all deeds that have ever been done, are 
vividly, clearly, exactly recorded in Nature s picture- 
gallery. Instances might be multiplied, for the pheno 
mena of our social life are various and complicated. 
But it is unnecessary. What has been said is sufficient 
to explain the principle, and the application is useful 
and not very difficult. But we must now bring our 
pictures back from our gallery. 

We have seen that time and space and all the 
possible factors of a phenomenon receive there an 



134 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

accurate representation, and, as I said before, these 
tattvic rays are united to the time that saw them 
leaving their record on the plane of our pictorial 
region. When, in the course of ages, the same time 
throws its shade again upon the earth, the pictorial 
rays, stored up long since, energize man-producing 
matter, and shape it according to their own potential 
energy, which now begins to become active. It will 
be readily conceded that the sun gives life to the earth 
to men as well as to vegetables and minerals. Solar 
life takes human shape in the womb of the mother, 
and this is only an infusion of some one set of our 
pictorial rays into the sympathetic life, which already 
shows itself on our planet. These rays thus produce 
for themselves a human gross body in the womb of the 
mother, and then having the now somewhat different 
and differing maternal body, start on their terrestrial 
journey. As time advances, the pictorial representation 
changes its tattvic postures, and with it the gross body 
does the same. 

In the case of the re-birth of the man we saw gazing 
on the mountains, the calm, watchful, contented atti 
tude of the mind which he cultivated then has its 
influence upon the organism now, once more the man 
enjoys the beauty of nature and so is pleased and 
happy. 

But now take the case of the cruel murderer. He is 
by nature cruel, he still yearns to murder and destroy, 
and he could not be restrained from his horrible 
practices, but that the picture of the ebbing life of 



THE COSMIC PICTURE-GALLERY. 1^5 

tlie victim is now part and parcel of his constitution ; 
the pain, the terror, and the feeling of despair and 
helplessness are there in all their strength. Occasion 
ally he feels as if the blood of life were leavino- his 

r"> 

very veins. There is no apparent cause, and yet he 
suffers pain; lie is subject to unaccountable fits of 
terror, despair and helplessness. His life is miserable; 
slowly but surely it wanes away. 

Let the curtain fall on this scene. The incarnated 
thief now conies on the stage. His friends leave him 
one by one or he is driven away from them. The 
picture of the lonely house must assert its power over 
him. He is doomed to a lonely house. The picture 
of somebody coming into the house through some un 
frequented part, stealing some of his property, perhaps 
strangling him, makes its appearance with the fullest 
strength. The man is doomed to eternal cowardice. 
He draws towards himself irresistibly the men who 
will cause him the same grief and heartrending he long 
ago caused to others. This posture of heartrending 
grief has its influence upon him in the ordinary 
way, and it creates its surroundings under the same 
influence. 

Take, too, the case of the adulterer. As he walks 
upon the earth, he is attracted towards as many of the 
other sex as he has guiltily loved before. He loves one, 
and his love might meet with a favourable response, 
but very soon a second, a third, and a fouith picture 
make their appearance, which are, as a matter of course, 
antagonistic to the first and repel it. The pledf -s of 



NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

love are quite unaccountably broken, and the heart 
rending pain that is caused may well be imagined. 
All the jealousy and all the complicated quarrels of 
lovers might with ease be traced to causes such as 

these. 

And those who have sinned by selling their love 
gold long ago will now love and will in return be 
looked down upon with contempt for their poverty. 
What can be more miserable than to be denied even 
the luxury of love through very poverty? 

These illustrations are, I believe, sufficient to explain 
the law according to which these cosmic pictures 
govern our future lives. Whatever other sins may 
be committed under the innumerable varying circum 
stances of life, their tattvic effects can easily be traced 
through the pictorial representations of the cosmos. 

It is not difficult to understand that the picture of 
each individual organism in Prana, although ever 
changing with the varying postures of the object, 
remains the same in substance. Every object exists 
in its form of Prana until, in the course of evolution, 
Prana itself merges into the higher atmosphere of 

Manas. 

Every genus and every species of living org; 
upon the face of the earth is pictured in Prana, and it is 
these pictures which on the highest plane of existence 
correspond in my opinion to the idfas of Plato. A very 
interesting question arises at this point. Are these 
pictures of eternal existence, or do they only come 
into existence after formations have taken place on the 



THK COSMIC PICTURE-GALLERY. 137 

terrestrial plane? Ex iiihilo niJiil fit is a well-known 
doctrine of philosophy, and I hold with Vyasa that 
the representations (what we now call pictures) of all 
objects in their generic, specific, and individual capa 
cities have ever been existing in the universal mind. 
Svara, or what may be called the Breath of God, the 
Breath of Life, is nothing more nor less, as has already 
been explained, than abstract intelligence, or if such 
an expression be better understood, intelligent motion. 
Our book says : 

"In the Svara are pictured, or represented, the Vedas 
and the Shastras, in the Svara the highest Gandharvas, 
and in the Svara all the three worlds; the Svara is 
A turn itself." 

It is not necessary to enter more thoroughly into a 
discussion of this problem ; the suggestion is sufficient. 
It may, however, be said that all formation in pro 
gress on the face of our planet is the assuming by 
everything under the influence of solar ideas of the 
shape of these ideas. The process is precisely similar 
to the process of wet earth taking impressions of any 
thing that is pressed upon it. The idea of anything 
is its soul. 

Human souls (Pranamaya Koshas) exist in this 
sphere just like the souls of other things, and are 
affected in that home of theirs by terrestrial experience 
in the manner above mentioned. 

In the course of ages, these ideas make their appear 
ance in the physical plane again and again, according 
to laws previously hinted at. 



138 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

I have also said that these pictures have their 
counterparts in the mental and the higher atmospheres. 
Now it might be said that just as these solar pictures 
recur again and again, there are times at which these 
mental pictures also recur. The ordinary deaths known 
to us are terrestrial deaths. That is to say they consist 
in the withdrawal of the influence of the solar pictures 
for a time from the earth. When that time has ex 
pired, the duration depending upon the colours of the 
picture, they throw their influence again upon the 
earth, and we have terrestrial re-birth. We may die 
any number of terrestrial deaths, and yet our solar life 
may not be extinct. 

But men of the present Marivantara may die solar 
deaths under certain circumstances. Then they pass 
out of the influence of the sun, and are born again 
only in the reign of the second Manu. Men who now 
die solar deaths will remain in a state of bliss all 
through the present Manvantara. Their re-birth may 
also be delayed for more than one Manvantara. All 
these pictures remain in the bosom of Mauu during 
the Manvantaric Pralaya. In the same way men 
may undergo higher deaths, and pass their time in a 
state of even higher and more enduring bliss. The 
mental coil may be broken, too, just as the gross, the 
terrestrial, and the solar may be, and then the blessed 
soul remains in bliss and unborn until the dawn of the 
second Day of Brahma. Higher still and longer is the 
state which follows Brahmic death. Then the spirit is 
at rest for the remaining Kalpa and the Mahapralaya 



TIIK COSMIC PICTURK-GALLKRY. 139 

that follows. After this it will be easy to understand 
the meaning of the Hindu doctrine, that during the 
Night of Brahma, as, indeed, during all the minor 
Nights, the human soul, and, in fact, the whole of the 
universe, is hidden in the bosom of Brahma like the 
tree in the seed. 



VII. 

THE MANIFESTATIONS OF PSYCHIC 
FORCE. 

PSYCHIC force is the form of matter known as Vijnana 
in active connection with the mental and life-matters. 
In the quotation given above from the Ishopanishad, 
it has been said that the Devas the macrocosmic and 
microcosmic manifestations of Prana do not reach 
the Atma, inasmuch as it moves faster than even the 
mind. The Tattvas of Prana move with a certain 
momentum. The mind has greater velocity, and 
psychic matter greater still. In the presence of the 
higher, the lower plane always appears to be at rest, 
and is always amenable to its influence. Creation is a 
manifestation of the psychic force on the lower planes 
of existence. The first process is, of course, the 
appearance of the various macrocosmic spheres with 
their various centres. In each of these spheres the 
Prana, the Manas, and the Vijnana-the universal 
tattvic rays on their own planes give birth to innu 
merable individualities. Each Truti on the plane of 
Prana is a life-coil (Pranamaya Kosha). The rays 
which give existence to each of these Trutis come from 
each and all of the other Trutis, which are situated in 



THE MANIFESTATIONS OF PSYCHIC FORCE. 141 

the space allotted to each of the five Tattvas and their 
innumerable admixtures, and which represent therefore 
all the possible tattvic manifestations of life. 

On the plane of Manas each mental Truti represents 
an individual mind. Each individual mind is given 
birth to by mental tattvic rays from the other quarters. 
These rays come from all the other Trutis situated 
under the dominion of each of the five Tattvas and 
their innumerable admixtures; representing therefore 
all the possible tattvic phases of mental life. 

On the psychic plane, each Truti represents an 
individual soul brought into existence by the psychic 
Tattvas flying from every point to every other point. 
These rays come from every Truti situated under the 
dominion of each of the five Tattvas and their innu 
merable admixtures ; thus representing all the possible 
manifestations of psychic life. 

The latter class of Trutis on the various planes of 
existence are the so-called gods and goddesses. The 
former class are coils which manifest themselves in 
earth life. 

Each psychic Truti is thus a little reservoir of every 
possible tattvic phase of life which may manifest itself 
on the lower planes of existence. And so, sending its 
rays downwards just like the sun, these Trutis manifest 
themselves in the Trutis of the lower planes. Accord 
ing to the prevalent phase of tattvic colour in these 
three sets of Trutis, the Vijiiana (psychic Truti) selects 
its mind, the mind selects its coil, and in the end the 
life-coil creates its habitation on earth. 



142 NATURE S FIXER FORCFS. 

The first function of the individual Tniti, Yijiiana, 
is to sustain the life of the mental Trati just as the 
macrocosmic Vijnana sustains the life of the macro- 
cosmic mind. And so also does the mental Truti sustain 
the life of the individual Truti of Prana. In this state 
the souls are only conscious of their subjectivity with 
reference to the mind and the Prana. They know that 
they sustain the lower Trutis, they know themselves, 
they know all the other psychic Trutis, they know the 
whole of the macrocosm of Ishvara, the tattvic ray.-; 
reflecting every point into their individual conscious 
ness. They are omniscient; they are perfectly happy 
because they are perfectly balanced. 

When the Pranamaya Kosha enters the habitation 
of earth, the soul is for the first time assailed by fini- 
tude. This means a curtailment, or rather the creation 
of a new curtailed consciousness. For long ages the 
soul takes no note of these finite sensations, but as 
the impressions gain greater and greater strength they 
are deluded into a belief of identity with these finite 
impressions. From absolute subjectivity conscious 
ness is transferred to relative passivity. A new world 
of appearances is created. This is their fall. How 
these sensations and perceptions, etc., are born, and 
how they affect the soul, has been already discussed. 
How the soul is awakened out of this forgetful ness 
and what it does then to liberate itself will come 
further on. 

It will be seen at this stage that the soul lives two 
lives, an active and a passive. Jn the active capacity 



TIIK MANIFESTATIONS OF PSYCHIC FORCK. 143 

it goes on governing and sustaining the substantial 
life of the lower Trutis. In the passive capacity 
it forgets itself, and deludes itself into identity with 
the changes of the lower Trutis imprinted upon them 
by the external Tattvas. The consciousness is trans 
ferred to finite phases. 

The whole fight of the soul upon reawakening 
consists in the attempt to do away with its passive 
capacity and regain its pristine purity. This fight is 
Yoga, and the powers which Yoga evokes in the mind 
and the Prana are nothing more than tattvic manifes 
tations of the psychic force, calculated to destroy the 
power of the external world on the soul. This con 
stant change of phase in the new unreal finite coils 
of existence is the upward march of the life-current 
iroin the beginnings of relative consciousness to the 
original absolute state. 

There is no difficulty in understanding the how of 
these manifestations. They are there in the psychic 
escrvoir, they simply show themselves when the 
lower Trutis assume the state of sympathetic polish 
and tattvic inclination. Thus the spectrum only 
shows itself when certain objects assume the polish 
and form of a prism. 

Ordinarily the psychic force does not manifest itself 
either in the Prana or the mind in any uncommon 
phase. Humanity progresses as a whole, and what 
ever manifestations of this force take place, they take 
in races as a whole. Finite minds are there-fore slow 
to 



NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

But all the individuals of a race have not the same 
strength of tattvic phase. Some show greater sym 
pathy with the psychic force in one or more of its 
component tattvic phases. Such organisms are called 
mediums. In them the particular tattvic phase of 
psychic force with which they are in greater sympathy 
than the rest of their kind, makes its uncommon 
appearance. This difference of individual sympathy 
is caused by a difference of degree in the commissions 
and omissions of different individuals, or by the prac 
tice of Yoga. 

This psychic force may in this way manifest itself 
in the shape of all the innumerable possibilities of 
tattvic combination. Therefore, so far as theory is 
concerned, these manifestations may cover the whole 
domain of tattvic manifestations in the visible and 
also in the invisible macrocosm, which latter, however, 
we know not. These manifestations may violate all 
our present notions of time and space, cause and 
effect, force and matter. Intelligently utilized, this 
force might very well perform the functions of the 
vril of The Coming Race. The following essay will 
trace some of these manifestations on the plane of the 
mind. 



VIII. 

YOGA THE SOUL. 

I HAVE now described more or less perfectly two 
principles of the human constitution Prana and 
Manas. Something has also been said about the 
nature and relations of the soul. The gross body was 
omitted as needing no special handling. 

The five manifestations of each of the two principles 
the Prana and the Manas it may be mentioned, may 
be either fortunate or unfortunate. Those manifesta 
tions are fortunate which are consonant with our true 
culture, which lead us to our highest spiritual develop 
ment, the summum bcniiiin of humanity. Those that 
keep us chained to the sphere of recurring births and 
deaths may be called unfortunate. On each of the two 
planes of life Prana and Manas there is a possibility 
of double existence. We may have, and, in fact, 
in the present conditions of the universe we have, a 
fortunate and an unfortunate Prana, a happy and an 
unhappy mind. Considering these two to be four, the 
number of the principles of the human constitution 
may be raised from five to seven. The unhappy 
intelligences of the one plane ally themselves with 



NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

the unhappy ones of the other, the happy oiies with 
the happy, and we have in the human constitution 
an arrangement of principles something like the 
following : 

1. The gross body (Sthiila Sharira). 

2. \ The unhappy Prana. 

3. I The unhappy Mind. 

4. } The happy Prana. 

5. The happy Mind. 

6. The soul (Vijnana). 

7. The spirit (Ananda). 

The fundamcntnm divisionis in the fivefold division 
is the Upadhi, the particular and distinct state of matter 
(Prakriti) in each case ; in the sevenfold division it is 
the nature of Karma with reference to its effect upon 
human evolution. 

Both the sets of these powers the blessed and the 
unhappy work upon the same plane, and although 
the blessed manifestations tend in the long run towards 
the state of Moksha, that state is not reached until the 
higher powers the Siddhis are induced in the mind 
by the exercise of Yoga. Yoga is a power of the soul. 
It is, therefore, necessary to say something about the 
soul and Yoga, before the higher powers of the mind 
can be intelligibly described. Yoga is the science of 
human culture in the highest sense of the word. Its 
purpose is the purification and strengthening of the 
mind. By its exercise the mind is filled with high 
aspirations, and acquires divine powers, while the 
unhappy tendencies die out. The second and third 



YOGA THK SOUL. 147 

principles of this essay are burnt up by the fire of 
divine knowledge, and the state of what is called 
salvation in life is attained. By and by the fourth 
principle, too, becomes neutral, and the soul passes 
into a state of Manvantaric Moksha. Higher still 
the soul may pass, according to the strength of her 
exercise. When the mind, too, is at rest, as in sound 
sleep (Sushupti), during life, the omniscience of the 
Vijiiana is reached. There is a state higher still the 
state of Ananda. Such are the results of Yoga; I must 
now describe the nature of the thing and the process 
of acquirement. 

So far as the nature of Yoga is concerned I may 
say that mankind has reached its present state of 
development by the exercise of this great power. 
Nature herself is a great Yogi, and humanity has been, 
and is being, purified into perfection by the exercise of 
her sleepless will. Man need only imitate the great 
teacher to shorten for his individual self the road to 
perfection. How are we to render ourselves fit for that 
great imitation ? What are the steps on the great ladder 
of perfection? These things have been discovered 
for us by the great sages of yore, and Patanjali s 
little book is only a short and suggestive transcript 
of so much of our past experiences and future poten 
tialities as is recorded in the book of nature. This 
little book uses the word Yoga in a double significa 
tion. The first is a state of the mind otherwise called 
Samadhi; the second is a set of acts and observances 
which induce that state in the mind. The definition 



NATURK S FINER FORCES. 

o by the sage is a negative one, and is only 

applicable on the plane of the mind. The source oi 
the positive power lies in the higher principle, the soul. 
Yoga, it is said, is the keeping in check of the . 
manifestations of the mind. In the very wording of 
the definition is involved the supposition of the < 
ence of a power which can control and keep in check 
the mental manifestations. This power is otherwis 
familiar to us as freedom of the will. Although by the 
manifestations of egoism (Asmita) on the mental plane 
the soul is deluded into regarding herself as a slave 
the second and third principles, the fact is not such, 
and as soon as the chord of egoism is slackened to a 
certain extent, the awakening takes place. This is the 
first step in the initiation by nature herself of the race 
of man. It is a matter of necessity. The working side 
by side with each other of the second and third, and 
the fourth and fifth principles, weakens the hold of 
natural mental Asmita upon the soul. "I am these, 
or of these mental manifestations," says egoism. Su 
a state of things cannot, however, last long. These 
manifestations arc double in their nature; the one : 
just the reverse of the other. Which of them is one 
with the Ego-the unhappy or the blessed? 
is this question asked than the awakening takes place. 
It is impossible to answer any of these questions in the 
affirmative, and the soul naturally ends in discovering 
that she is a separate thing from the mind, that though 
she has been the slave, she might be (what she natur 
ally is) the Lord of the mind. Up to this time 



YOGA TIIK SOU!.. 



soul has been tossed this way or that, in obedience to 
the tattvic vibrations of the mind. Her blind sym 
pathy with the mental manifestations gives her unison 
with the mind, and hence the tossing B y the waking 
above noticed, the chord of sympathy is loosened The 
stronger the nature, the greater the departure from 
Instead of the soul being tossed by the 
mental vibrations, it is now time that the mind should 
vibrate in obedience to the vibrations of the soul 
This assumption of lordship is the freedom of the 
will, and this obedience of the mind to the vibrations 
of the soul is Yoga. The manifestations evoked in 
the mind by the external Tattvas must now give way 
to the stronger motion coming from the soul/ By and 
y the mental colours change their very nature, and 
the mind comes to coincide with the soul. In other 
words, the individual mental principle is neutralized 
and the soul is free in her omniscience. 

Let us now trace step by step up to Samadhi the 
acquirements of the mind. 

Samadhi, or the mental state induced by the prac 
tice of Yoga, is of two descriptions. As long as the 
mind is not perfectly absorbed in the soul the state is 
called Samprajnata. It is that state in which the dis 
covery of new truths in every department of nature 
follows labour. The second is the state of perfect 
mental absorption. It is called Asamprajnata. In 
this there is no knowing, no discovering of unknown 
It is a state of intuitive omniscience Two 
questions are naturally suggested at the awakening 



1 5 o NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

stage. "If I am these manifestations, which of them 
anTl? I think I am none of them. What am I then? 
What are these?" The second question is solved in 
the Samprajnata Sainadhi, the first in the other. Be 
fore entering further into the nature of Samadhi a 
word about habitation and apathy. These two are 
mentioned by Patanjali as the two means of checking 
mental manifestations, and it is very important to 
understand them thoroughly. The manifestation of 
apathy is the reflection in the mind of the colour of 
the soul when she becomes aware of her free nature 
and is disgusted consequently at the sway of the 
passions. It is a necessary consequence of the awaken - 
ing. Habituation is the repetition of the state so as 
to confirm it in the mind. 

The confirmation of the mind in this state means 

a state of ordinary mental inactivity. By this I mean 

that the five ordinary manifestations are for the time 

being at rest. This being so, the mind is for the time 

left free to receive any influences. Here for the first 

time we see the influence of the soul in the shape of 

curiosity (Vitarka). What is this? What is that? 

How is this? How is that? This is the form in 

which curiosity shows itself in the mind. Curiosity 

is a desire to know, and a question is an expression of 

such a desire. But how does man become familiar 

with questions? The mental shape of curiosity and 

question will be easily understood by paying a little 

attention to the remarks I have made on the genesis 

of desire. The process of the birth of philosophical 



YOGA THE SOUL. jr T 

O 

curiosity is similar to that of the birth of desire. In 
the latter the impulse conies from the external world 
through Prana; in the former directly from the soul. 
The place of pleasure in this is supplied by the reflec 
tion into the mind of the knowledge of the soul that 
Self and independence are better than the bondage of 
Non-Self. The strength of .the philosophical curiosity 
depends upon the strength of this reflection, and as 
this reflection is rather faint in the beginning (as in 
the present state of the spiritual development of 
humanity it generally is), the hold of philosophical 
curiosity upon the mind bears almost no comparison 
in strength with the hold of desire. 

Philosophical curiosity is then the first step of 
menial ascent towards Yoga. We place before our 
mind to begin with every possible manifestation of 
nature, and try to fit in every possible phase of it with 
-very related manifestation. This is, as we shall see 
hereafter, Dharana. It is, in plain language, to apply 
ourselves to the investigation of all the branches of 
natural science one by one. 

This is the natural result of curiosity. By this 
attempt to discover the relations already existing or 
possible, actual or potential, among the phenomena of 
nature, another power is induced in the mind. This 
power Patanjali calls Yichara, meditation. The radi 
cal idea of the word is to go among the various rela 
tions of the portions that make up the whole subject 
of our contemplation. It is only a deeper hold on the 
mind of the philosophical curiosity noticed above. 



152 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

The third state of this Samadhi is what is called 
Ananda, liappiness or bliss. As long as there is 
curiosity or meditation, the mind is only assuming the 
consistency of the soul. This means to say that the 
vibrations of the soul are as yet only making way into 
the mind, they have not yet succeeded entirely. When, 
however, the third stage is arrived at, the mind is 
sufficiently polished to receive the full and clear image 
of the sixth coil. This image presents itself to the 
mind as bliss. Every man who has devoted himself 
to the study of nature has been, for however short a 
time, in that coveted state. It is very difficult to make 
it intelligible by description, but I am sure that the 
majority of my readers are not strangers to it. 

But whence does this bliss come? What is it? I 
have called it a reflection of the soul. But first of 
all, what is the soul? From what I have been writing 
up to this time, my readers will no doubt surmise that 
I understand the soul to be only a picture of the gross 
body, the Prana, and the mind, so far only, however, 
as its constitution is concerned. 

I have mentioned that in the macrocosm the sun 
is the centre, and the Prana is the atmosphere of the 
second principle, and that the ecliptic marks the shape 
of this principle. I have also mentioned that the 
individual human principle is only a picture of this 
macrocosmic whole. I have mentioned again that in 
the macrocosm Virat is the centre and Mann the 
atmosphere of the second principle. This atmosphere 
is made of the five universal Tattvas, just like Prana, 



YOGA - THK SOUL. 153 

the only difference being that the mental Tattvas 
undergo a greater number of vibrations per second 
than the Tattvas of Prana. I have also said that 
the individual mind is an exact picture the aspect of 
course differing with the surroundings of time, just as 
in the case of Prana of the macrocosmic mind. 

Now I have to say the same with regard to the soul. 
In the macrocosm there is Brahma, for the centre, and 
Yijnana for the atmosphere of this principle. As the 
earth moves in Prana, as the sun breathes in Mann, 
as the Manu (or Virat) breathes in Vijnana, so the 
soul breathes in the highest atmosphere of Ananda. 
Brahma is the centre of spiritual life, as the sun is 
the centre of Prana, and Virat the centre of mental life. 
These centres are similar in luminosity to the sun, 
but ordinary senses cannot perceive them, because the 
number of tattvic vibrations per second is beyond 
their power. 

The soul of the universe (the Vijnanamaya Kosha), 
with Brahma for its centre, is our psychic ideal. 

The tattvic currents of this sphere extend over what 
we call a Brahmanda. This they do in a way similar 
to the tattvic rays of Prana with which we are familiar 
through the medium of gross matter. This centre 
with this universe forms the self-conscious universe. 
In the bosom of this atmosphere exist all the lower 
centres. 

Under the influence of gross matter the mental 
macrocosm registers the external pictures, that is to 
say, it gains the power of manifesting itself in the 



NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

five ways I have described in the essay on mind. 
Under the Brahma, however, the mental macrocosm 
(Mann) attains the higher powers under discussion. 
This double influence changes, after a time, the nature 
of Manu himself. The universe has, as it were, a 
new mind after every Manvantara. This change is 
always for the better. The mind is ever spiritualizing. 
The later the Manu the more spiritual. A time will 
come when the present macrocosmic mind will be 
entirely absorbed in the soul. The same is the case 
with the microcosm of man. Thus Brahma is by 
nature omniscient. He is conscious of a self. The 
types of everything that was or is to be in process of 
time are but so many varying compositions of his 
Tattvas. Every phase of the universe, with its ante 
cedents and consequents, is in him. It is himself, his 
own self-consciousness. One mind is absorbed in him 
in the space of fourteen Manvantaras. The motion 
of the mental Tattvas is so much accelerated that 
they become spiritual. By the time that this takes 
place in the universe the vibrations of the Tattvas of 
Prana are being accelerated, too, under the influence 
of Manu until the Prana itself is turned into the 
Manu of the next period. And, again, while this is 
being done, the gross matter is similarly developing 
itself into Prana. 

This is the process of involution, but for the present 
let us leave it here and resume the subject in hand. 

The human soul is an exact picture of this macro- 
cosmic principle. It is omniscient like its prototype, 



YOGA THE SOUL. 155 

and has the same constitution. But the omniscience 
of the human soul is still latent on account of her for- 
getfulness. The sixth principle (absolute) has only 
developed a little. Humanity in general has only a 
very dim notion of infinity, of Godhead, and of all 
such subjects. This means that the rays of the in 
finite at this stage of our progress are only just 
evoking our sixth principle into active life. When in 
process of time the rays of the infinite gather suffi 
cient strength our soul will come out in her true 
light. We might accelerate this process by Yairagya 
(apathy), which, as has been seen, gives strength to 
Yoga. 

The means of strengthening Yoga deserve separate 
consideration. Some of them help to remove those 
influences and forces which are antagonistic to pro 
gress, others, such as the contemplation of the divine 
principle, accelerate the process of the development of 
the human soul, and the consequent absorption of the 
mind in the soul. At present I have simply to set 
forth the nature of the blissful Samadhi, which I 
spoke of as being caused by the reflection of the soul 
in the mind. 

This reflection simply means the assumption by the 
mind of the state of the soul. The mind passes from 
its own ordinary state to the state of the higher energy 
of the soul. The greater number of tattvic vibra 
tions per second make their way in the matter of a 
lower number of tattvic vibrations per second. This 
rising up of the mind, this passing out of itself, the 



156 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

English language recognizes by the name of elation, 
and this is the meaning of the word Ananda as quali 
fying the third state of the Samprajriata Samtidhi. 
The Anandamaya Kosha takes its name from its 
being the state of the highest elation. Every moment 
of Ananda is a step towards the absorption of the 
mind, and by constant scientific meditation the mind 
as it were changes its nature, passing for ever into a 
higher state of consistency. That state which in 
Ananda only appeared in the moment of triumph now 
becomes part and parcel of the mind. This confirma 
tion of the higher energy is known by the name of 
Asmita, which may be translated (as it generally is) 
by the word egoism, but must be understood as the 
identification of the consciousness with self. 

The object in view in this essay is to mark the 
stages along the road of mental matter to its final 
absorption in the soul. In the last sentences I brought 
the mind to the state of Samprajnata Samadhi. It is 
in this state that the mind acquires the power of dis 
covering new truths, and seeing new combinations of 
things existent. As this state has been attained in 
the long cycles of bygone ages, man has acquired a 
knowledge of science to its present stage of develop 
ment, and the attainment of this quantum of know 
ledge has been the means (in the manner traced) 
whereby our minds have been raised to our present 
pitch of perfection, when we have learned to say that 
these great powers are native to the human mind. As 
I have shown, these powers have become native to 



YOGA THE SOUL. 

the mind only after long submission of the mind to 
the influence of the soul. 

By the constant exercise of this Samadhi the mind 
learns to incline towards those cosmic influences that 
are in their very nature antagonistic to those evil 
powers of our constitution which check our progress. 
These powers tend naturally to die out. The ultimate 
goal of this path is that state of mind when its mani 
festations become entirely potential. The soul, if she 
pleases, may propel them by her inherent power into 
the domain of the actual, but they lose all power to 
draw the soul after them. 

When this state is reached, or when it is about to 
be reached, certain powers begin to show themselves 
in the mind, which in the present cycle are by no 
means common. This state is technically called Para- 
vairagya, or the higher apathy. 

The word Vairagya is usually rendered into English 
as apathy, and is looked upon by modern thinkers 
with disfavour. This, I believe, is partly owing to a 
misconception of the meaning of the word. It is 
generally understood, I believe, that misanthropy is 
the only indication, or perhaps the highest perfection, 
of this mental state. Nothing can be further from 
the intention of those sages who put Vairagya down 
as the highest means of the attainment of bliss. 
Vairagya or apathy is defined by Vyasa in his com 
mentary on the ApJiorisms of Yoga as the "final state 
of perfected knowledge." It is that state in which 
the mind, coming to know the real nature of things, 



158 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

will no longer be deluded into false pleasure by the 
manifestations of Avidya. When this upward incli 
nation becomes confirmed, when this habit of soaring 
towards the divine becomes second nature, the name 
of Paravairagya is given to the complementary mental 
state. 

This state is reached in many ways, and the road is 
marked by many clearly defined stages. One way is 
the practice of Samprajiiata Samadhi. By the con 
stant practice of this Samadhi, to which the mind 
runs of itself when once it tastes the bliss of the 
fourth stage of that state, the mind is habituated to a 
state of faith in the efficacy of the pursuit. This 
faith is nothing more than a state of mental lucidity 
in which the yet unknown truths of nature begin to 
throw their shadows forward. The mind begins, as it 
were, to feel truth in any and ever} 7 place, and, drawn 
by the taste of bliss (Ananda), proceeds with greater 
and greater zeal to work out the process of its evolution. 
This faith, I may remark, has been called by Patanjali 
Shraddha, and the consequent zeal of which I have 
spoken, he names Virya. 

Confirmed in this zeal and working on, the mani 
festation of memory comes in naturally.* This is a 
state of high evolution. Every truth comes to be 
present before the mind s eye at the slightest thought, 
and the four stages of Samadhi make their appearance 
again and again till the mind becomes very nearly a 
mirror of Nature. 

* I may refer the reader to my analysis of memory. 



YOGA THE SOFT.. 159 

This corresponds to the state of Paravairagya, which 
would in the second place be also attained by the con 
templation of the high prototype of the soul. This is 
the macrocosmic soul, the Ishvara of Patanjali, which 
remains for ever in that entity s soul of pristine purity. 
It is this Ishvara of which I have spoken as the self- 
conscious universe. 

This Ishvara, as I conceive it, is only a macrocosmic 
centre, similar in nature to, though higher in function 
than, the sun. 

As the sun with his ocean of Prana is the prototype 
of our life-principle Pranamaya Kosha so Ishvara is 
the great prototype of our souls. What is the sixth 
principle if not a phase of the existence of this great 
being prolonged as a separate phase into the lower 
principles, yet destined again to merge into its own 
true self? Just as I have shown that the principles of 
life live in the sun after our terrestrial death, to recur 
again and again into actual life, so in a similar way 
does the soul live in the Ishvara. We may if we 
please look upon this entity as being the group of all 
the liberated souls, but we must at the same time 
remember that the unliberated souls too are his un 
developed reflections, destined in the long run to 
attain their original state. It is therefore necessary to 
assume the independent existence of Ishvara, and, in 
Ishvara, of other souls. 

This macrocosmic psychic centre, this ideal of the 
sixth principle in man, is the great reservoir of every 
actual force in the universe. This is the true type of 



160 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

the perfection of the human soul. The incidents of 
mental and physical existence which, however perfect 
in themselves, are mere imperfections, find no place 
in this centre. In this state there is no misery (the 
five comprehensive miseries of Patanjali are enume 
rated above), for misery can arise only in the retro 
grade process of the first awakening of the mind, 
being only caused by sensation, and the inability of 
the human sixth principle to draw the mind towards 
itself and out of the domain of the senses, to make 
it, so to say, what its prototype originally is, the rod 
of dominion, and not as sensation has made it, the 
instrument of slavery. 

By this contemplation of the sixth principle of the 
universe, a sympathy is naturally established between 
it and the human soul. That sympathy is only 
necessary for the universal tattvic law to work with 
greater effect. The human soul begins to be cleansed 
of the dust of the world, and in its turn affects the 
mind in a similar way, and therein the Yogi becomes 
conscious of this influence by the slackening of the 
fetters forged by Prakriti, and a daily, hourly streng 
thening of heavenward aspirations. 

The human soul then begins to become a centre of 
power for its own little universe, just as Ishvara is the 
centre of power in his universe. The microcosm then 
becomes a perfect little picture of the macrocosm. 
When perfection is attained, all the mental and physio 
logical Tattvas of the microcosm, and to a certain 
extent of the surrounding world, become the slaves 



YOGA THE SOUL. I 6 I 

of the soul. Whithersoever it may incline, the Tattva<; 
are at its back. He may will, and the atmospheric 
\ ayu Tattva, with whatever amount of slrencnh he 
pleases or is capable of concentrating, will set in motion 
any piece of furniture within the reach of his will. 
2 may will, and at the instant the Apas Tattva will 
slake thirst, cure fever, or, in fact, wash off the o-erms 
of any disease he desires. He may will, and, in fine 
any and every Tattva on any of the lower planes will 
do its work for him. These high powcrs do not 
to appear all of a sudden, but show themselves 
gradually, and, of course, according to special aptitudes 
in special forms. 

But a description of these powers is not mv present 
business. My only purpose so far is to show in what 
way, according to the universal law of nature, the 
human soul, by contemplation of the macrocosmic 
:th principle, becomes the means for the mind at 
taining the state called Paravairagya. The laws of 
the working of these high powers may make the sub 
ject of some future attempt. 

Besides these two, the author of the Aphorisms of 
Yoga enumerates five more ways in which the minds 
of those who by the power of previous Karma are 
already inclined towards the divine, are seen to work 
their way to the state under discussion. 

The first way is the habituating of the mind to th 
manifestations of pleasure, sympathy, elation, and pity 
toward the comfortable, the miserable, and the vicious. 
Every good man will tell us that the manifestation of 



162 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

joy at the comfort of another is a high virtue. Why, 
what harm is there in jealousy? I think that no other 
science except the philosophy of the Tattvas explains 
with any amount of satisfaction the reason of such 
questions. 

We have seen that in a state of enjoyment, comfort, 
pleasure, satisfaction, and the like, the Prithivi or the 
Apas Tattva prevails in the Prana and the mind. It 
is evident that if we put our minds in the same, we 
induce either of the two Tattvas into our life and 
mental principles. What will be the result? A pro 
cess of purification will set in. Both the principles 
will begin to be cleansed of any trace of defect which 
the excess of any of the remaining Tattvas may have 
given to our constitution. 

All those physiological or mental causes which in 
duce inattention in the mind are removed. Bodily 
distempers take their leave, for they are the result of 
the disturbance of the balance of the physiological 
Tattvas, and comfort, pleasure, and enjoyment are 
foreign to these. The one induces the other As the 
balance of the Tattvas brings comfort and enjoyment 
of life, so the sense of comfort and enjoyment which 
colours our Prana and mind when we put ourselves in 
sympathy with the comfortable, restores the balance 
of our Tattvas. 

And when the balance of the Tattvas is restored, 
what remains? Disinclination to work, doubt, laziness 
and other feelings of that kind can no longer stand, and 
the only result is the restoration of the mind to per- 



YOGA THR SOU!,. 163 

feet calmness. As says Vyasa in his commentary, the 
White Law makes its appearance in the mind. Such 
and in a similar way is the result of the manifestations 
of the other qualities. But, for such a result to be 
achieved, there must be long and powerful application. 
The next method is Pranayama, deep expiration 
and inspiration. This too conduces to the same end 
and in the same way. The breathing of deep breaths 
in and out has to some extent the same effect as run 
ning- and other hard exercise. The heat that is pro 
duced burns out certain elements of disease, which it 
is desirable should be burnt. But the practice in its 
effects differs for the better from hard exercise. In 
hard exercise the Sushumna begins to play, and that 
is not good for physiological health. Pranayama, 
however, if properly performed, is beneficial from a 
physiological as well as from a mental point of view. 
The first effect that is produced in Pranayama is the 
general prevalence of the Prithivi Tattva. It is un 
necessary to remind the reader that the Apas Tattva 
carries the breath lowest down, and that the Prithivi 
is the next. In our attempt to draw deeper breaths 
than usual, the Prithivi Tattva cannot but be intro 
duced, and the general prevalence of this Tattva, with 
the consequent golden tinge of the circle of light 
round our heads, can never fail to cause fixity of pur 
pose and strength of attention. The Apas Tattva 
next comes in. This is the silvery hue of innocence 
which encircles the head of a saint and marks the 
attainment of the state of Paravairagya. 



164 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

The next is the attainment of the twofold lucidity 
the sensuous and the cardiac. The sensuous luci 
dity is the power of the senses to perceive the changes 
of Prana. The previously trained attention, accord 
ing to special aptitudes, is centred on any one or 
more of the five senses. If centred in the eyes, one 
can see the physiological and atmospheric colours of 
Prana. I can affirm this by personal experience. I 
can see the various colours of the seasons. I can see 
rain coming an hour, two hours, and sometimes even 
two days before an actual shower. Bright sheets of 
the green washed into coolness and purity by the white 
make their appearance anywhere about me in the 
room, in the heavens, on the table before me, on the 
wall in front. When this happens, I am sure that 
rain is in the air, and to come down shortly. If the 
green is streaked with red, it takes some time to come, 
but it is surely preparing. 

These remarks are enough for colour. The power 
can be made to show itself by a sustained attempt to 
look into space, or anything else, as the moon, a star, 
a jewel and so on. The remaining four senses too 
attain similar powers, and sounds, smells, tastes, and 
touches which ordinary humanity cannot perceive 
begin to be perceived by the Yogi. 

The cardiac lucidity is the power of the mind to 
feel and also that of the senses to perceive thoughts. 
In a previous essay (p. 43) I have given a chart of the 
head, specifying the places and giving the colours of 
the various kinds of mental manifesto/ ions. These 



YOGA THE SOUL. 165 

colours are seen by anyone \vlio lias or acquires the 
power, and they constitute the surest book to read the 
thoughts of any man in. By sustained practice one 
will recognize the finest shades. 

One can also feel these thoughts. The modifica 
tions of thought moving along the universal tattvic 
"wires" affect any and every man. They impart each 
a distinct impulse to the Pranamaya Kosha, and thus 
a distinguishable impulse to the throbs of the brain 
and the more easily perceivable throbs of the heart. 
A man who studies these throbs of the heart and sits 
with his attention centred in the heart (while it is 
of course open to every influence) learns to feel every 
influence there. The effect on the heart of the mental 
modifications of other pecple is a fact which, so far as 
quality is concerned, may be verified by the commonest 
experience. 

This sensuous or cardiac lucidity, as the case may be, 
once attained, kills scepticism, and in the end conduces 
to the state of Paravairagya. 

In the next place, says Patanjali, one may rely upon 
the knowledge obtainable through dreams and sleep. 

The five ethereal currents of sensation are focussed 
in the brain, and from these five centres of force 
motion is transmitted to the mental principle. These 
various foci serve as connecting links between the 
mental and the life principles. The visual currents 
produce in the mind the capability of becoming con 
scious of colour. In other words, they produce eyes in 
the mind. Similarly does the mind develop the faculty 



X 66 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

of receiving the impressions of the four remaining 
sensations. This faculty is acquired after the ex 
posure of ages. Cycles upon cycles pass on, and the 
mind is not yet capable of receiving these tattvic 
vibrations. The wave of life begins its organized 
journey upon earth with vegetable forms. From that 
time external tattvic currents begin to affect the vege 
table organism, and this is the beginning of what 
we call sensation. The modifications of the external 
Tattvas through the individualized vegetable life strike 
the chords of the latent mind, but it will not yet 
respond. It is not in sympathy. Higher and higher 
through vegetable forms the life-wave travels; greater 
and greater is the force with which it strikes the 
mental chords, and better and better is the capability 
of that principle to respond to the tattvic calls of life. 
When we reach the animal kingdom the external 
tattvic foci are just visible. These are the sensuous 
organs, each of which has the capability of focussing 
in itself its own peculiar tattvic rays. In the lowest 
forms of animal life they are just visible, and this is a 
sign that the mental principle is then in a compara 
tively high state of perfection; it has somewhat begun 
to respond to the external tattvic call. It may be re 
marked here that this is the superposed relative mind, 
and not the absolute original mental Truti, of both 
of which I have spoken in a former essay. It is the 
uprising of this evolutionary finite structure on all 
planes of life that has led a German philosopher to 
the conclusion that God is becoming. This is of course 



YOGA THK SOU!.. ib/ 

true, but it is only true of the finite universe of names 
and forms and not of the absolute towards which it is 
moving. 

To resume. Longer and longer is now the expo 
sure of this animal life to the external Tattvas; 
greater and greater every day is the strength of these 
in their various foci; higher and higher is the forma 
tion of these foci ; stronger and stronger is the exter 
nal call upon the mind, and more and more perfect 
is the mental response. A time comes in the progress 
of this evolution when the five mental senses are 
perfectly developed, as is marked by the development 
of the external senses. The action of the five mental 
senses we call the phenomenon of perception. On 
the manifestation of this perception is raised the 
mighty fabric of those mental manifestations which 
I have tried to discuss in the essay on mind. The 
way in which this evolution takes place is sketched 
there, too. 

The external Tattvas of gross matter create gross 
foci in a gross body why. nee to send their currents. 
The soul does the same. The iattvic currents of the 
external soul Ishvara create similar centres of action 
in connection with the mind. But the tattvic vibra 
tions of the soul are finer than those of the life- 
principle. The mental matter takes longer time to 
respond to the call of Ishvara than it does to answer 
to the call of Prana. It is not till the life-wave 
reaches humanity that the vibrations of the soul 
begin to show themselves in the mind. The foci of 



i68 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

psychic currents are located in what is called the 
Vijrianamaya Kosha the psychic coil. At the time 
of the beginning of human life, the psychic foci are 
in that same state of perfection as are the animal 
foci the senses, at the time when the life-wave begins 
its journey in the animal species. These psychic foci 
go on gaining strength, race after race, till we reach 
the point which I have called the awakening of the 
soul. That process ends in the confirmation of the 
state of Paravairagya. From this state there are only 
a few steps to the power of what has been called ulterior 
or psychic perception. Our former perception we may 
now call animal perception. And just as on the basis 
of animal perception has been raised the mighty fabric 
of inference and verbal authority, so also may be raised 
(as indeed it has been by ancient Aryan -:ages) a more 
mighty fabric of inference and verbal authority on the 
basis of psychic perception. We shall come to that by 
and by. In the meantime, let us resume our subject 
from the point at which we left it. 

As practice confirms in th.e Yogi s mind the state of 
Paravairagya, it attains the most perfect calm. It is 
open to all sorts of tattvic influences, but without any 
sensuous disturbance. The next power that conse 
quently shows itself is called Samapatti. I shall 
translate this word by the term intuition, and define 
it as that mental state in which it becomes possible to 
receive the reflection of the subjective and the objective 
worlds; it is the means of knowledge at the slightest 
motion in whatever manner imparted. 



YOGA THE SOUL. 169 

Intuition has four stages. 

1. Sa-vitarka verbal. 

2. Nir-vitarka wordless. 

3. Sa-vichara meditative. 

4. Nir-vichara ultra-meditative. 

The state of intuition has been likened to a bright, 
pure, transparent, colourless crystal. View through 
the crystal whatever object you will and it will most 
readily show in itself the colour of that object. And 
so does the mind behave in this state. Let fall on it 
the tattvic rays which constitute the objective world, 
it shows itself in the colours of i ie objective world. 
Let those colours be removed, it is again as pure as 
crystal, ready to show in itself any other colours that 
may be presented to it. Think of the elementary 
forces of nature the Tattvas; think of the gross 
objects where they work; think of the organs of 
sense, their genesis, and the method of their work; 
think of the soul liberated or bound, and the mind 
readily falls into each of these states. It retains no 
particular colour which may oppose or vitiate any 
other colour entering it. The first stage of intuition 
is the verbal. It is the most common in this age and 
therefore the most easily intelligible. Let the reader 
think of a mind in which no colour is evoked at the 
sound of scientific words. Let him think of thou 
sands of those iiKii in whose minds the sounds of 
their own language full of high and great ideas is as 
strange to them as Hebrew is to the Maori. Take an 
uneducated Knglish peasant and read to him Cuuius 



1 70 NATURE S KINKR FORCES. 

or 77^6- Tempest. Do you think those beautiful words 
will carry to him all they are intended to convey? But 
why an uneducated peasant? Did the great Johnson 
himself understand the beauties of Milton? Take 
asrain a common schoolboy, and read to him in his 

o * 

own language the truths of philosophy. Does that 
language, even if you give him its dictionary mean 
ing, convey any idea to his mind? Take the Upani- 
shads, and read them to any pandit who can under 
stand Sanskrit grammatically and lexicographically 
tolerably well. Does anyone doubt I do not that 
he does not understand all that those noble words 
convey? With such a mind, let him compare the 
mind of a really educated man, a mind which almost 
intuitively, as it were, takes in the true sense of words, 
which is not an easy task even for the highly edu 
cated, for prejudice, deep-seated antagonistic theories, 
the strength of one s own convictions, and perhaps 
some other characteristics of the mind, prove an in 
surmountable obstacle. This comparison will show 
that intuition is something more than a mere sharpen 
ing of the intellect. It is rather the light that is at 
the back of everything shining into and through 
the intellect which has been purged from all opaque 
obstacles, the densest of which is a deeply-rooted and 
antagonistic scepticism. Even a John Stuart Mill 
could not properly understand the philosophy of Sir 
William Hamilton. One of the greatest Oriental 
scholars says that Patanjali s system is no philosophy 
at all! Another has expressed himself to the effect 



YOGA THK SOUL. I/I 

that Patanjali s Aphorisms on Yoga are mere fanati- 
cism! There are main- Tantras of which, though we 
might translate them verbally into another language, 
very few of us really know the meaning. This is a 
very grave shortcoming, and sometimes much to be 
regretted. It disappears only with the manifestation 
of verbal intuition. In this state the Yogi is at once en 
rapport \\\\\\ the author of the book, and this is because 
his mind is free from every blinding prejudice, and is, 
in fact, a pure, bright, colourless crystal, ready to show 
any phase of colour that may come in contact with it. 

The next stage of intuition is the wordless. In this 
you no longer stand in need of books to initiate your 
self into the secrets of nature. Your mind becomes 
capable of deriving these truths from their fountain- 
head the true pictures of everything in every state of 
the objective world which are represented through the 
agency of Prana in the universal mind pictures which 
are the souls of these things, their own true selves and 
pregnant with every state into which the} have passed, 
or have to pass the realities of the various and vary 
ing phases of the phenomenal world the characteristic 
qualities of things. 

These states have for their object the gross pheno 
menal world. The next t\vo stages of intuition have 
for their object the world of forces the world of subtle 
bodies which lies at the root of the changes of the 
gross world. The meditative intuition has for its 
object only the present manifestation of the currents of 
the subtle bodv the forces which are already showing 



172 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

or going to show themselves. In this state, for ex 
ample, the Yogi knows intuitively the present forces 
of the atmospheric Prana as they are gathering 
strength enough to give us a shower of rain or hail, 
snow or hoarfrost, but he does not know what has 
given them their present activity, or whether the 
potential will ever become the actual, and if so, to 
what extent. He knows the forces that are work 
ing at the present moment in that tree, that horse, 
that man ; he knows the powers that keep these things 
in the state they are in, but he does not know the 
antecedents and consequents of that state. 

The next has for its object all the three states of 
subtle bodies. The present state is of course known, 
but with it the Yogi combines the whole history of the 
object from beginning to end. Place before him that 
rose, and he knows its subtle principle in all its states, 
antecedent and consequent. He is familiar with the 
little beginnings of the tree, and its growth in various 
states; he knows how the budding began, he knows 
how the bud opened and how it grew into that beau 
tiful flower. He knows what will be its end, how it 
will perish, and when. He knows at what time 
again the same flower will energize gross matter. Put 
before him a closed letter and he knows not only what 
that letter contains, but can trace the thoughts to the 
brain whence they proceeded, to the hand which traced 
the lines, to the room in which they were written, and 
so on. It is in this state too that mind knows mind, 
without the medium of words. 



YOGA THR SOUL. 173 

I hope I have sufficiently explained these four states. 
They constitute what is called the objective trance 
(Savija Samadhi). 

Occasionally these powers show themselves in many 
minds. But that simply proves that the favoured 
mortal is on the right track. He must make sure of 
the point if he would win. 

When the last stage of this Samadhi is confirmed 
in the mind, our psychic senses gain power over that 
amount of certain knowledge which is the portion of 
our animal senses. The authority of these senses is 
supreme with us, so far as the gross world is concerned. 
In a similar way there is left for us no room to doubt the 
truth of the knowledge which our psychic senses bring 
us. This high power of knowing every stipersensuous 
truth with perfect certainty is known as Ritambhara, 
or what I have in English called psychic perception. 

The knowledge which psychic perception gives us 
is by no means to be confounded with the knowledge 

r~> 

obtained through inference, imagination, or the records 
of others experience. 

Inference, imagination, and verbal authority, based 
on animal perception, can only work upon knowledge 
obtained through the animal senses. But psychic per 
ception and inference based upon it have for their object 
things of the supersensuous world, the realities which 
underlie the phenomenal existence we are familiar with. 
That perception takes in the fact of the existence and 
the nature of Pmkriti itself, the subtlest state of matter, 
just as animal perception takes in gross matter. 



174 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

Animal perception draws the mind towards gross 
matter, the world that has given it birth. So does 
psychic perception draw the mind towards the soul. 
The practice of objective Samadhi destroys itself. 
The mind takes in so much of the higher energy of 
the soul that it loses its mental consistency. Down 
goes the entire structure of unreal names and forms. 
The soul lives in herself, and not as now in the 
mind. 

With this the greater part of my work is done. It 
is now clear that what we call man lives chiefly in 
the mind. The mind has two entities to affect it. 
The one is the life-principle, the other the psychic 
principle the one producing certain changes in the 
mind from below, the other from above. These 
changes have been recorded, and it has been found 
that the dominion of the soul is more desirable than 
that of the life-principle. When the mind loses itself 
entirely in the soul, man becomes God. 

The object of these essays has been roughly to por 
tray the nature, function, and mutual relation of the 
principles, in other words, to trace the operation of the 
universal tat tine law on all the planes of existence. 

This has been briefly done. A good deal more 
remains to be said about the powers latent in the 
Prana and the mind, which show themselves in special 
departments of the progress of man. That need not, 
however, be entered on at present, and therefore with 
some description of the first and last principle of the 
cosmos the spirit I close this series. 



IX. 

THE SPIRIT. 

Tins is the Anandamaya Kosha, literally the coil of 
bliss of the Yeduntins. With the power of psychic 
perception, the soul knows the existence of this entity, 
but in the present stride of human development it has 
hardly made its presence directly felt in the human 
constitution. The characteristic difference between 
the soul and the spirit is the absence in the latter of 
the "/." 

It is now the dawn of the day of evolution. It is 
the first setting-in of the positive current of the great 
breath. It is the first state of cosmic activity after the 
night of Malulpralaya. As we have seen, the breath 
in every state of existence has three differentiations 
the positive, the negative, and the Sushumna. The 
Sushumna is pregnant with cither of the two remain 
ing states. This is the state which is described in the 
Parameshthi Sukta of the 7^/V Veda as neither Sat 
(positive) nor Asat (negative). This is the primary 
state of Parabrahman, in which the whole universe 
lies hidden like a tree in the seed. As billows rise 
and lose themselves in an ocean, the two states of 
evolution and involution take their rise in this state, 



176 NATURE S FIXER FORCES. 

and are in due time lost in the same. What is Prakriti 
itself in this state of potential omnipotence? The 
phenomena of Prakriti owe their origin and existence 
to the modifications of the great breath. When that 
great breath is in the state of Sushumna, can we not say 
that Prakriti itself is held in that state by Sushumna? 
It is in fact Parabrahman that is all in all. Prakriti is 
only the shadow of that substance, and like a shadow 
it follows the modifications of the breath. The first 
modification of the great breath is the setting in of the 
evolutionary (positive) current. In this state Prakriti 
modifies itself into the ethers of the first degree, which 
make up the atmosphere from which Ishvara draws 
life. The subject (Parabrahman), whose breath causes 
these prakritic modifications, is in this first state of 
evolution known as the Sat, the fountain-head of all 
existence. The / is latent in this state and naturally 
enough, because it is differentiation which gives birth 
to the /. But what is this state? Must man be anni 
hilated before he reaches this state of what, from the 
standpoint of man, is called Nirvana or Parinirvana? 
There is no reason to suppose that it is the state of 
annihilation any more than is the condition of latent 
heat in water. The simple fact is that the colour 
which constitutes the ego becomes latent in the spirit s 
higher form of energy. It is a state of consciousness 
or knowledge above self, certainly not destroying that 
self. 

The individual spirit bears the same relation to the 
Sat which the individual soul bears to the Ishvara, the 



THE SPIRIT. i~- 

individual mind to the Yirat, and the individual lifc- 
principle to the Prana. Kach centre is given birth 
by the tattvic rays of that degree. Each is a drop in 
its own ocean. The Upanishad explains this state 
under many names. The Chhdndogya^ however, has a 
very comprehensive dialogue, on this subject, between 
Uddalaka and his son Shvetaketu. 

Professor Max Miiller has made some very question 
able remarks on certain assertions in this dialogue, 
calling them "more or less fanciful." These remarks 
could never have fallen from so learned a man had he 
known and understood something of the ancient 
Science of Breath and the philosophy of the Tattvas. 
The Upanishads can never be very intelligible without 
this comprehensive science. It must be remembered 
that the Upanishads themselves have in many places 
clearly laid down that a teacher is wanted for the 
proper understanding of their divine words. Now the 
teacher taught nothing else but the Science of Breath, 
which is said to be the secret doctrine of all secret 
doctrines. It is, in fact, the key of all that is taught 
in the Upanishads. The little book which these essays 
try to explain to the world appears, from its very 
arrangement, to be a compilation of various couplets 
on the same subject inherited from various esoteric 
circles. It is, in fact, as a key to Aryan philosophy 
and occult science that this handful of stanzas now 
presented to the reader has its chief value. But, ah ! 
I cannot hope that this little book will serve to dispel 

the gloom of ages. 

13 



178 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

To return, however, to the dialogue between the 
father and the son. It is contained in the sixth 
Prapathaka of the Chhdndogya Upanishad. 

" In the beginning, my dear, there was that only 
which is (TO oV) one only, without a second. Others 
say in the beginning there was that only which is 
not (TO M oV) one only, without a second, and from that 
which is not, that which is was born. 1 

This is the translation of Professor Max Miiller. 
Notwithstanding the authority of his great name, and 
real scholarship, I venture to think that the sense of 
the Upanishad is totally lost sight of in the translation. 

The words of the original are: 

Sad eva saumycdamagre asit. 

I cannot find any word in the translation giving the 
sense of the word idam in the original. Ida in means 
"this," and it has been explained as meaning the 
phenomenal world; this that is perceived, etc. The 
real translation of the text would therefore be: 

This [world] was Sat alone in the beginning. 

Perhaps in the translation of Professor Max Miiller, 
the word "there" is printed by mistake for "this." If 
this is the case the defect in the translation is at once 
remedied. 

The text means that the first state of the world 
before differentiation was the state known as Sat. 
From what comes afterwards, it appears that this is 
the state of the universe in which all its phenomena 
material, mental, and psychic are held in posse. The 
word cva, for which the word "alone," or "only," stands 



TIII-: SPIRIT. 179 

in the translation, signifies that at the beginning of the 
day of evolution the universe had not all five, or even 
two or more of the five planes of existence fogctJicr. 
Now it has, but in the beginning the Sat alone 
existed. 

The Sat is one only, without a second. In these two 
epithets there is no qualification of time. The Sat is 
one alone, and has not, like Prana, Yirat, and Ishvara, 
(all three existing simultaneously) a shadowy side of 
existence. 

The next sentence goes on to say that in the begin 
ning there was Asat alone. As Professor Max Muller 
renders it: "There (?) was that only which is not." 

Now this carries no meaning, notwithstanding the 
Greek accompaniment (TO ^ w). That the word Asat 
is used in the sense of "that which is not" or briefly 
"nothing," there is no doubt. But that such is not 
the meaning of the Upanishad there is also no doubt. 
The words are used here in the same sense in which 
they are used in the "Nosad asit" Hymn of the Rig 
Veda. 

"Then there was neither the Sat nor the Asat." 
This is of course a state quite other than the Sat of the 
Upanishad. It is nothing more than the Sushumna 
of the Brahmic breath. After this in the beginning 
of evolution the Brahman became Sat. This is the 
positive evolutionary potential phase. The Asat is 
nothing more than the cooler negative life current, 
which rules during the night of Mahapralaya. When 
the shadowy Prakriti has undergone the preparatory 



i So NATURE S FINKR FORCES. 

influence of the negative current, the day of evolution 
sets in with the beginning of the positive current. 
The dispute as to beginning is merely of a technical 
nature. In reality there is no beginning. It is all a 
motion in a circle, and from this point of view we 
may put whatever state we like in the beginning. 

But, argues the Asat philosopher, unless the Maya 
undergo the preparatory influence of the Night, there 
can be no creation. Hence, according to him, we 
must put the Asat in the beginning. 

To this the sage Uddalaka would not consent. 
According to him the active impressive force is in the 
Sat, the positive state, just as all the life-forms take 
their origin from Prana (the positive life-matter) and 
not from Rayi (the negative life-matter).* It is only 
impressibility that exists in the Asat, the real names 
and forms of the phenomenal universe do not there 
exist. In fact the name Sat has been given to the 
primary state of the evolving universe for this very 
reason. If we would translate these two words into 
English we would have to coin two very unique com 
pounds: 

Sat that-in-which-is. 

Asat that-in-which-is-not. 

It is only such a rendering that would carry the true 
idea, and hence it is after all advisable to retain the 
Sanskrit words and explain them as one best may. 

That actually existing state in which the names and 
forms exist not, cannot very properly stand as the cause 

* See the Prashnof>anishait. 



THK SPIRIT, l8l 

of the names and forms which do exist. Hence the 
Sat alone was in the beginning, etc. 

The individual spirit has the same relation to the 
Sat as the soul has to the Ishvara. 

This is enough to show that there is no annihilation 
anywhere in the universe. Nirvana simply means the 
extinguishment (which is not extinction) of the pheno 
menal rays. 



THE SCIENCE OF BREATH. 



THE SCIENCE OF BREATH 

AND THE 

PHILOSOPHY OF THE TATTYAS. 

(Translated from. tlic Sanskrit.} 

[THIS book is couched in the form of a dialogue 
between the god Shiva and his wife Parvati. All the 
Tantras have the same form. The former is generally 
spoken of as Ishvara, the latter as Devi or Shakti. 
From its method of composition the treatise does not 
seem to have been written by Shiva, the supposed 
author of the SJiivaguna. In the first place there arc- 
several stanzas in the book, which appear to be the 
composition of different authors, put in the present 
form by some compiler; and, secondly, the author 
says in one place that he was going to describe certain 
experiments as he had seen them in the Shiva gaina, 
or "Teachings of Shiva." 

In the end of one MS., however, it is said that tin- 
book comprises the eighth chapter of the Shivagaina. 

In the Kcnopanishad the great commentator Shan- 
karacharya interprets Uma Haimavati (another name 



i86 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

of Parvati) as Brahma Vidya, the Divine Science or 
Theosophia. There the goddess appears as a teacher, 
and she may well personify Theosophia. This expla 
nation, however, will hardly hold good here. Here 
Shiva and Parvati seem to be the positive and nega 
tive principles. They are best acquainted with their 
own working. The god, the positive principle, ex 
plaining to the Shakti, the negative principle, the 
various modes in which the finer forces of nature 
imprint themselves upon the grosser planes, may be 
the symbol of the eternal impression of all thoughts 
and living organisms into the Shakti the passive 
matter, Rayi by Shiva the active principle.] 
Said the goddess: 

1. Lord Mahadeva, god of gods, be kind to me, and 
tell me the wisdom that comprehends everything. 

2. How did the universe come forth? How does it 
continue? How does it disappear? Tell me, O lord, 
the philosophy of the universe. 

Said the god : 

3. The universe came out of Tattva* [or the Tatt- 
vas]; it goes on by the instrumentality of the Tattvas; 
it disappears into the Tattvas; by the Tattvas is known 
the nature of the universe. 

[The universe comprehends all the manifestations 
with which we are familiar, either on the physical, 
the mental, or the psychic plane. All of them have 

* In the original the singular number is often used to denote 
the common quality of the five Tattvas that by which each is 
known as such. 



THK SC1KXCK OF BRKATH. l8/ 

come out of the Tattvas. The Tattvas are the forces 
which lie at the root of all these manifestations. 
Creation, preservation, and destruction, or, more 
strictly speaking, appearance, sustenance, and dis 
appearance of the phenomena we are acquainted with, 
are tattvic changes of state.] 

Said the goddess: 

4. The knowers of the Tattvas have ascertained the 
Tattvas to be the highest root; what, O god, is the 
nature of the Tattvas? Throw light upon the Tattvas. 

Said the god : 

5. Unmanifested, formless, the one giver of light, 
is the Great Power; from that appeared the sonorifer- 
ous ether (Akasha); from that had birth the tangiferous 
ether. 

[This Great Power is the Parabrahinan of the 
Vedantins, the first change of state which stands at 
the crown of evolution. This is the first positive 
phase of life. All the Upanishads concur in this. In 
the beginning all this was Sat (the positive phase of 
Brahma). 

From this state come out by degrees the five ethers 
-Tattvas or Mahabhutas as they are also called. 
"From him came the Akasha and so on, 1 says the 
Upanishad. This state of Parabrahinan is called in 
the text " unmanifested." .Manifestation for us only 
begins with the "Kgo," the sixth principle of our 
constitution all beyond that is naturally unmani- 
fested. 

"Formless" this epithet is given because forms 



T 88 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

only show themselves when the Tattvas and the two 
states of matter the positive and the negative, the 
active and the passive come into existence. 

As yet there is only one universal state of matter. 
Hence is also given to that state the epithet "one." 

He is also called the " giver of light." This light 
is the real life. It is this state which changes into 
the five ethers, which form the atmosphere of the 
sixth principle of the universe.] 

6. From the tangiferous ether, the luminiferous 
ether, and from this the gustiferous ether; thence was 
the birth of the odoriferous ether. These are the five 
ethers and they have five-fold extension. 

7. From these the universe came forth; by these it 
continues; into these it disappears; among these also 
it shows itself again. 

8. The body is made of the five Tattvas; the five 
Tattvas, O fair one, exist therein in the subtle form; 
they are known by the learned who devote themselves 
to the Tattvas. 

[The body human as well as every other is made 
of the five Tattvas in their gross form. In this gross 
body play the five Tattvas in their subtle form. They 
govern it physiologically, mentally, psychically and 
spiritually. These are therefore the four subtle forms 
of the Tattvas.] 

9. On this account shall I speak of the rise of 
breath in the body; by knowing the nature of inspi 
ration and expiration comes into being the knowledge 
of the three times. 



TIIK SCIKXCR OF BRKATH. 

[Man can devote himself most easily to his own 
body. On this account have been described here the 
laws of the rise of the breath in the body. 

Knowledge of the three times the past, the present 
raid the future is nothing more than a scientific 
knowledge of the causes and effects of phenomena. 
Know the present tattvic state of things, know its 
antecedent and consequent states, and yon have a 
knowledge of the three times.] 

10. This science of the rise of breath, the hidden 
of the hidden, the revealer of the true Good, is a pearl 
on the head of the wise. 

n. This knowledge is the subtle of the subtle; it 
is easily understood; it causes the belief of truth; it 
excites wonder in the world of unbelievers; it is the 
support among them that believe. 

[The Qualities of the Pupil] 

12. The science of the rise of breath is to be given 
to the calm, the pure, the virtuous, the firm and the 
grateful, and to the single-minded devotee of the 
Guru.* 

13. It is not to be given to the vicious, the impure, 
the angry, the untruthful, the adulterer, and him who 
has wasted his substance. 

\Thc Science of Breath] 

14. Hear, thou goddess, the wisdom which is found 
in the body; omniscience is caused by it, if well 
understood. 

* Spiritual teacher. 



NATURK S FINER FORCKS. 

15. In the Svara are the Vedas and the Shastras; in 
the Svara the highest Gandharva; in the Svara are 
all the three worlds; the Svara is the reflection of 
Parabrahman. 

["In the Svara are the Vedas," etc. Svara, as has 
been seen, is the "current of the life-wave." It is the 
same as the "intelligence" of the Yedantins. The 
assertion in this stanza may have two meanings. It 
may mean that the things described in the Vedas are 
in the Svara, or it may mean that the description itself 
is there. It may mean that both are there. This is 
of course an absolute fact. There is nothing in the 
manifested universe which has not received existence 
from the Great Breath, which is the Prana of the 
universe on the highest plane of life.] 

16. Without a knowledge of the breath [Svara] the 
astrologer is a house without its lord, a speaker with 
out learning, a trunk without a head. 

17. Whoever knows the analysis of the Nadis, the 
Prana, the Tattvas, and the conjunctive Sushumna, 
gains salvation. 

1 8. It is always auspicious in the seen or the unseen 
universe, when the power of breath is mastered; they 
say, O fair one, that the knowledge of the science of 
breath is also somewhat auspicious. 

[This stanza points to the difference between prac 
tical and theoretical occultism. The practice is, of 
course, highly auspicious, but the theory, too, puts 
us in the right track, and is, therefore, "somewhat 
auspicious."] 



THE SCIENCE OF BREATH. 19! 

19. The parts and the first accumulations of the uni 
verse were made by the Svara, and the Svara is visible 
as the Great Power, the creator and the destroyer. 

[For some reflections on this subject the reader is 
referred to the essay on Evolution.] 

20. A knowledge more secret than the science of 
breath, wealth more useful than the science of breath, 
a friend more true than the science of breath, has 
never been seen or heard of. 

21. An enemy is killed by the power of the breath, 
friends also are brought together; wealth is obtained 
through the power of the breath, and comfort and 
reputation also. 

22. By the power of breath one gets a female child or 
meets a king; by the power of breath are gods propi . 
tiated, and by the breath is a king placed in a person s 
power. 

23. Locomotion is caused by the power of breath; 
food, too, is taken by the power of breath; urine and 
fujces are also discharged by the power of breath. 

24. All the Shastras and Puranas and the rest, be 
ginning with the Yedas and the Upanishads, contain 
no principle beyond the knowledge of Svara [the 
breath]. 

25. All are names and forms. Among all these 
people wander mistaken. They are fools steeped in 
ignorance unless the Tattvas are known. 

[Every phenomenon is nothing more than a phase 
of tattvic motion. 

All the phenomena of the universe are names and 



192 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

forms. All these names and forms live in the Svara 
of Parabrahman, or rather in the subtler Tattvas, but 
there nothing is distinguishable. They are only dis 
tinguished as such when they are imprinted upon the 
grosser planes. The impression takes place by the 
instrumentality of Rayi, the cooler state of life-matter, 
which is only the shade of Prana, the original state. 
Hence the names and forms are all unreal.] 

26. This science of the rise of breath is the highest 
of all the high sciences; it is a flame for illumining 
the mansion of the soul. 

27. The knowledge cannot be imparted to this man 
or that except in answer to a question ; it is therefore 
to be known by one s own exertions in and by the 
soul alone. 

[This is the celebrated dictum, "Know thyself by 
thyself," which differs from the Greek aphorism by 
the addition of the last two words.] 

28. Neither the lunar day, nor the constellations, 
nor the solar day, nor planet, nor god; neither rain 
nor the Yyatipata, nor the conjunctions Vaidhrita, etc., 

[These are all of them the various phases of the 
five different tattvic states. They have a natural 
effect upon the terrestrial life. The effect differs with 
the thing influenced. The rays of the tattvic state of 
time will only be reflected into any organism if the 
reflecting surface is akin. The Yogi who has power 
over his breath can put it into any tattvic state he 
chooses, and the antagonistic effects of time are simply 
thrown off.] 



THR SCIENCE OF BREATH. 193 

29. Nor do the bad conjunctions, O goddess, ever 
have power; when one attains the pure power of 
Svara, everything has good effect. 

30. In the body are the Nadis having many forms 
and extensions; they ought to be known in the body 
by the wise, for the sake of knowledge. 

31. Branching off from the root in the navel, seventy- 
two thousand of them extend in the body. 

[The Yogis take the navel to be the starting point 
of the system of Nadis. Says Patanjali, the great 
Yoga philosopher: "The systems of the body are 
known by concentration upon the navel." On the 
other hand, the Vedantins take the heart to be the 
starting point of the system. The former assign as 
their reason, the existence in the navel of the power 
Kundalini, the latter the existence in the heart of the 
cardiac soul (the Lingam Atma), which is the real life 
of the gross body. This, however, is immaterial. We 
may begin wherever we like, if we only truly under 
stand the location of the life-principle, and its various 
manifestations.] 

32. In the navel is the power Kundalini sleeping 
like a serpent; thence ten Nadis go upwards and ten 
downwards. 

[The power Kundalini sleeps in the developed 
organism. It is that power which draws in gross 
matter from the mother-organism through the um 
bilical cord, and distributes it to the different places 
where the seminal Prana gives it form. When the 
child separates from the mother the power goes to 



NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

sleep. She is no more wanted now. Upon the sup 
plies of the Kundalim depend the dimensions of the 
body of the child. It is said that it is possible to 
awake the goddess even in the developed organism by 
certain practices of Yoga.] 

33. Two and two of the Nadis go crosswise; they 
are thus twenty-four in number. The principal are 
the ten Nadis in which act the ten forces. 

34. Crosswise, or upwards, or downwards, in them 
is manifested the Prana all over the body. They are 
in the body in the shape of Chakras supporting all the 
manifestations of Prana. 

35. Of all these, ten are the chief; of the ten, three 
are the highest Ida, and Pingala, and Sushumna. 

36. Gandhan, Hastijihva, Pusha and Yashasvini; 
Alambusha, Kuhu, Shankhini, and also Damim. 

37. Ida is in the left part, Pingala in the right, Su 
shumna in the middle; Gandhari in the left eye. 

38. In the right eye Hastijihva; in the right ear 
Pusha; Yashasvini in the left ear; in the mouth 
Alambusha. 

39. Kuhu in the pudendum ; in the anus Shankhini. 
In this way one at each outlet stand the Nadis. 

40. Ida, Pingala, and Sushumna stand in the way 
of the Prana, these ten Nadis extend variously in the 

body. 

[For a dissertation on these three Nadis the reader 
is referred to the essay on Prana. On a small scale 
the right and left chambers of the heart, and the 
right and left portions of the spinal column are the 



THE SCIENCE OF BRKATH. 195 

Pingala and Ida. The canal between these two is the 
Sushumna. Taking the blood-vessel system to be a 
mere reflection of the nervous system, the terminology 
might be applied to the nerves alone. It appears, 
however, that the Nadis of the Tantrists comprehend 
both these systems. In the nervous system there is 
the real power, and this must be present everywhere 
where there is any manifestation of life.] 

41. The above are the names of the Nadis. I now 
give the names of the forces: Prana (i), Apana (2), 
Samana (3), Udana (.j), and Vyana (5). 

42. Naga (6), Kurma (7), and Krikila (8), Deva- 
datta (9), and Dhananjaya (10). In the breast lives 
always the Prana; the Apana in the circle of the 
anus. 

43. The Samana in the circle of the navel, the 
Udana in the midst of the throat; the Vyana pervades 
all the body. These are the ten principal forces. 

44. The five beginning with the Prana have been 
described. The remaining five forces begin with Naga. 
Their names and places too I give. 

45. The Naga is known in belching; the Kiirma in 
the winking of the eye; the Krikila is known as the 
cause of hunger; the Devadatta is known in yawning. 

46. The all-pervading Dhananjaya does not leave 
even the dead body. All these move in all the Nadis 
where they put on the appearance of life. 

47. Let the wise man know the manifest movements 
of the individualized Prana by the three Nadis Ida, 
Pingala, and Sushumna. 



196 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

48. The Ida is to be known in the left half and the 
Pingala in the right [half of the body]. 

49. The moon is placed in Ida, the sun in Pingala; 
Sushumna has the nature of Sambhu, and Samblm is 
the self of Hamsa [both inspiration and expiration]. 

50. Expiration is called Ha; inspiration is Sa; Ha 
is the Shiva [the active], and Sa the Shakti [the 

passive]. 

51. The moon appears as Shakti, causing the left 
Nadi to flow; causing the right Nadi to flow, the sun 
appears as Sambhu [active]. 

52. Any charity given by the wise while the breath 
is in the left nostril is multiplied crores* on crorcs of 
times in this world. 

53. Let the Yogi look into his face, with one mind 
and with attention, and thus let him know fully the 
motion of the sun and the moon. 

54. Let him meditate upon the Tattva when the 
Prana is calm, never when it is disturbed; his desire 
will be fulfilled, he will have great benefit and victory. 

55. To those men who practise, and thus always 
keep the sun and moon in proper order, knowledge of 
the past and the future becomes as easy as if they were 
in their hand. 

56. In the left Nadi the appearance of the breath is 
that of the Amrita [nectar] ; it is the great nourisher 
of the world. In the right, the motion-imparting 
portion, the world is always born. 

[The negative phase of Prana has the qualities of 
A crore = 10,000,000. 



THlv vSCIK.\ CK OF I5RKATH. 197 

Amrita, the giver of eternal life. The negative matter, 
the moon, is cooler than the positive matter, the sun. 
The former is Rayi, the latter Prana. The former 
receives the impressions from the latter, and this plays 
the part of imparting impressions to that. The moon, 
therefore, is the real life of all names and forms. In 
her they live; she keeps them up. She is, therefore, 
the Amrita, the nectar of life. The right Nadi is, 
from the greater temperature it possesses, the imparter 
of names and forms, or, briefly, the motion-imparting 
phase of life matter. It is the tendency of the sun to 
always cause changes in names and forms, and giving 
new impressions in the place of the old. Hence the 
sun is the greater destroyer of forms. He is the father 
of the forms, but the real preserver is the moon.] 

57. In the midst the Sushumna moves very cruelly, 
and is very bad in all acts; everywhere in auspicious 
acts the left [Nadi] causes strength. 

58. In going out the left is auspicious; in going in 
the right is auspicious; the moon must be known to 
be even, the sun odd. 

59. The moon is the female, the sun is the male; 
the moon is fair, the sun is dark.* During the flow of 
the Nadi of the moon, let calm acts be done. 

60. During the flow of the Nadi of the sun harsh 
works are to be done ; during the flow of the Sushumna 
are to be done acts resulting in the attainment of 
psychic powers and salvation. 

61. In the bright fortnight the moon comes in first, 

* As compared with the moon. 



jgg NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

in the dark one the sun; beginning from the first 
lunar day they rise one after the other in order, each 
after three days. 

62. The moon and the sun have each the white 
[northward, upward] and the black [southward, down 
ward] duration of two and a half Gharis. They flow 
in order during the sixty Gharis of a day. 

63. Then by a Ghari each [twenty-four minutes] 
the five Tattvas flow. The days begin with the Prati- 
pata [the first lunar day]. When the order is reversed 
the effect is reversed. 

64. In the bright fortnight the left [is powerful], 
in the dark the right; let the Yogi with attention 
bring these into order, beginning with the first lunar 

day. 

65. If the breath rises* by the way of the moon, 
and setst by that of the sun, it confers groups of good 
qualities; in the reverse, the reverse. 

66. Let the moon flow the whole day through, and 
the sun the whole night; he who practises thus is verily 
a Yogi. 

67. The moon is checked by the sun, the sun by the 
moon; he who knows this practice, strides in a moment 
over the three worlds [i.e., nothing in the three worlds 
can have an evil effect upon him]. 

68. During Thursdays, Fridays, Wednesdays, and 
Mondays the left Nadi gives success in all acts, 
especially in the white fortnight. 

69. During Sundays, Tuesdays, and Saturdays the 

At sunrise. t At sunset. 



Till-; SCIKNCE OF BREATH. !>/.; 

right Nadi gives success in all harsh acts, especially 
in the black fortnight. 

70. During five Gharis each, the Tattvas have their 
distinct rise in order, Ghari by Ghari. 

71. Thus there are twelve changes during day and 
night. Taurus, Cancer, Virgo, Scorpio, Capricornus, 
Pisces are in the moon [Y.6\, with these signs the breath 
rises in the left Nadi]. 

72. During Aries, Gemini, Leo, Libra, Sagittarius 
and Aquarius, the rise of the breath is in the right 
Nadi. From this good or bad is ascertained. 

73. The sun is centred in the east and the north, the 
moon in the west and south. Let none go to west and 
south during the flow of the right Nadi. 

74. Let none go to east and north during the flow 
of the left Nadi. . . . 

75. The wise who desire good should not therefore 
go in these directions during these intervals; for then 
assuredly will there be suffering and death. 

76. When, during the bright fortnight, the moon 
flows, it is beneficial to the man; comfort is caused in 
mild deeds. 

77. When at the time of the rise of the sun-breath 
the moon-breath rises, and vice, vcrsd, quarrel and 
danger make appearance, and all good disappears. 

\_Thc ll rvtig Sz (ird.~\ 

78. When in the morning the wrong breath takes its 
rise, that is the sun in place of the moon, and the moon 
in place of the sun ; then 



200 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

79. On the first day the mind is confused ; on the 
second [occurs] loss of wealth ; on the third they speak 
of motion ; on the fourth the destruction of the desired 
[object]. 

80. On the fifth the destruction of worldly position ; 
on the sixth the destruction of all objects; on the 
seventh disease and pain; on the eighth death. 

81. When for these eight days, at all the three 
times, the breath is wrong, then the effect is abso 
lutely bad; when it is not quite so there is some 
good.* 

82. When in the morning and the noon there is the 
moon, and in the evening the sun, then there is always 
success and benefit. The reverse gives pain. 

83. Whenever the breath is in the right or the left 
Nadi, the journey will be successful, if the right or the 
left, as the case may be, is the first step. 

96. During the flow of the moon, poison is de 
stroyed; during that of the sun, power is obtained over 
any body. During Sushumna salvation is obtained. 
One power stands in three forms Pingala, Ida, and 
Sirshumna. 

97. It may happen that when something is to be 
done, the breath is not rightly flowing, or conversely, 
when the breath is flowing as it ought to be, there is 

* Thus the effects of the wrong breath depend upon its strength. 
In the majority of cases there may only be a tendency towards 
these effects, or there may only be a dream of, or an anxiety about, 
these things. 



THK SCIENCE OF BRKATH. 2OT 

no occasion for the action to be done. How then 
is a man of business to follow the promptings of 
Prana? 

98. Auspicious or inauspicious acts are always done 
day and night. When need be, the proper Nadi is to 
be set in motion. 

[Ida.-] 

99. In those acts which are desired to have durable 
effect, in adornment, in going on a distant journey, 
in entering an order of life (Ashrama) or a palace, in 
amassing wealth, 

100. In sinking wells, ponds, tanks, etc., in erecting 
columns and idols, in buying utensils, in marriage, in 
having clothes, jewelry, and ornaments made, 

101. In preparing cooling and nourishing medi 
cines, in seeing one s lord, in trade, in the collection 
of grain, 

102. In going into a new house, in taking charge of 
some office, in cultivation, in throwing the seed, in 
auspicious peace-making, in going out the moon is 
auspicious. 

103. In such acts as beginning to read, etc., in see 
ing relations, .... in virtue, in learning from 
some spiritual teacher, in rehearsing a Mantra, 

104. In reading the aphorisms of the science of 
time, in bringing quadrupeds home, in the treatment 
of diseases, in calling upon masters, 

105. In riding horses and elephants, in doing good 
to others, in making deposits, 



202 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

106. In singing, in playing upon instruments, in 
thinking of the science of musical sounds, in entering 
any town or village, in coronation, 

107. In disease, sorrow, dejection, fever and swoon, 
in establishing relations with one s people, and masters, 
in collecting grain, and fuel, etc., 

108. In the adornment of the person by women, 
when rain is coming, in the worship of the teacher, 
etc., O fair one, the moon is auspicious. 

109. Such acts also as the practice of Yoga are 
successful in Ida. In Ida, verily, let one give up the 
Akasha and Tejas modifications of Prana. 

no. By day or by night all works are successful; 
in all auspicious works the flow of the moon is 
good. 



in. In all harsh acts, in the reading and teaching 
of difficult sciences, .... in going on board a 
ship, 

112. In all bad acts, in drinking, in rehearsing the 
Mantras of such a god as Bhairava, .... 

113. In learning the Shastras, in going, in hunting, 
in .the selling of animals, in the difficult collection of 
bricks, wood, stone, and jewels, etc., 

114. In the practice of music, in the Yantras and 
Tantras, in climbing a high place or mountain, in 
gambling, in theft, in the breaking in of an elephant 
or a horse, in a carriage or otherwise, 

115. In riding a new donkey, camel, or buffalo, or 



THE SCIKNCK OF I5RKATH. 

an elephant, or horse, in crossing a stream, in medicine, 
in writing, 

116. In athletic sports, in killing or producing con 
fusion, in practising the six Karnias, etc., in obtaining 
power over Yakshinis, Yakshas, Vetalas, Poisons and 
Bhutas, etc., 

117. In killing, .... in enmity, in mesmeris 
ing,* causing one to do anything at bidding in draw 
ing anyone towards anything, in causing distress and 
confusion, in charity, and buying and selling, 

118. In practising with swords, in battle, in seek 
ing the king, in eating, in bathing, in mercantile 
negotiations, in harsh and hot deeds, the sun is 
auspicious. 

119. Just after eating, .... the sun is auspi 
cious. The wise ought to sleep, too, during the flow 
of the sun breath. 

1 20. All harsh acts, all those various acts which in 
their nature must be transitory and temporary, find 
success during the sun. There is no doubt in this. 

\SushumndI\ 

121. When the breath moves one moment in the 
left and the other in the right, that [state of Prana] 
is known as Sushumna. It is the destroyer of all 
acts. 

[It will be seen that in this section three phases of 
the Sushumna arc noticed. 

* The man will never have courage and moral turpitude enough 
to do the act but when the right Nadi flows. 



204 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

(i) When the breath comes one moment out of one 
nostril and the next out of the other. 

(ii) When the breath at once flows out of both nos 
trils with equal force. 

(iii) When the breath flows out of one nostril with 
greater force than it does out of the other. 

The first is called the unequal state (Vishamabhava). 
The second and third are called the Vishuvat or 
Vishuva.] 

122. When the Prana is in that Nadi the fires of 
death burn. It is called Vishuvat, the destroyer of all 
actions. 

123. When both the Nadis, which ought to flow 
one after the other, flow at once, then verily there is 
danger for him who is thus afflicted. 

124. When it is at one moment in the right, and 
the other moment in the left, it is called the unequal 
state. The effect is the reverse of what is desired, 
and so it ought to be known, O fair one! 

125. The wise call it Vishuvat when both the Nadis 
flow. Do neither harsh nor mild acts at that time; 
both will be fruitless. 

126. In life, in death, in asking questions, in income, 
or its absence, in success or its want everywhere the 
reverse is the case during the flow of the Vishuvat. 
Remember then the Lord of the Universe. 

127. The Ishvara is to be remembered by acts such 
as the practice of Yoga, nothing else is to be done at 
that time by those who desire success, income and 
comfort. 



THR SCIKXCE OF BRKATII. 205 

128. Pronounce a curse or benediction v/hen with 
the sun the Sushuinuu flows slowly, and it will be 
useless. 

129. When the unequal state takes rise, do not so 
much as think of journeying. Journeying during this 
state undoubtedly causes pain and death. 

130. When the Nadi changes or the Tattva changes, 
nothing auspicious shall be done by way of charity, 
etc. 

131. In the front, in the left and above is the moon. 
On the back, on the right and below is the sun. In 
this way the wise ought to know the distinction 
between the full and empty. 

[Two more phases of conjunction have been noticed : 
(i) Sandhya Sandhi; (ii) Vedoveda. According to 
some philosophers these do not exist. These two 
are said to be but the names of the two foregoing 
ones. This, however, is not the thesis of the pre 
sent writer. He holds that both these states exist 
separately. 

(i) The Sandhya Sandhi is that Sushumna through 
which disappearance takes place into the higher 
matter beyond. The physiological Sushumna is the 
reservoir of man s potential physiological life. From 
that state either the positive or the negative phase of 
life takes its birth. 

But the Sushumna is the child of a higher phase of 
life. The positive and negative mental forces accord 
ing to similar laws give birth to this potential Prana- 
maya Kosha. The world, as some writers have said, 



206 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

is the outcome of mental motion (Sankalpa, Manah 
Sphurana). The state of the conjunction of these 
two mental states is the Sandhya Sandhi. The same 
name seems to have been given to the higher Sti- 
shumna. When the two phases of mental matter are 
neutralized in the Susliuinna, the Pranamaya Kosha 
loses its vitality and disappears. 

(ii) This is that state in which is thrown the reflec 
tion of the Higher Atma, and whence it is possible 
for it to come into the mind.] 

132. The messenger who is above, in front, or on 
the left, is in the way of the moon, and he who is 
below, at the back and on the right, is in the way of 
the sun. 

133. The conjunction through which disappearance 
takes place in the subtle matter beyond, which has no 
beginning, is one, and is without [potential] nourish 
ment or confusion, is called Sandhya Sandhi. 

134. Some say there is no separate Sandhya Sandhi, 
but the state in which the Prana is in the Vishuvat is 
called Sandhya Sandhi. 

135. There is no separate Vedoveda, it does not 
exist. That conjunction is called Vedoveda by which 
the highest Atma is known. 



\Thc 

Said the goddess: 

136. Great lord! god of the gods! in thy mind is 
the great secret which gives salvation to the world; 
tell me all of it. 



THE SCIENCE OF BREATH. 2O/ 

Said the god : 

137. There is no god beyond the secret knowledge 
of breath; the Yogi who is devoted to the scienee of 
breath is the highest Yogi. 

138. Creation takes place from the five Tattvas; the 
Tattva disappears in Tattva; the five Tattvas consti 
tute the objects of the highest knowledge; beyond 
the five Tattvas is the Formless. 

139. The Prithivi, the Apas, the Tejas, the Vayu, 
and the Akasha are the five Tattvas; everything is 
of the five Tattvas. Revered is he who knows this. 

[How everything every possible phenomenon of 
the soul, the mind, the Prana, and the gross matter 
is of the Tattvas, the introductory essays have tried 
to explain.] 

140. In the beings of all the worlds the Tattvas 
are the same all over; from the earth to the Satya- 
loka the arrangement only of the system of Nadis 
differs. 

[The nervous system is different in all the Lokas. 
It has been said many a time that the tattvic rays 
flying in every direction from every point give birth 
to innumerable Trutis, which are miniature pictures 
of the macrocosm. Now, it \vill be easy to under 
stand that these pictures are formed on different 
planes, which are differently inclined to the solar 
axis, and lie at different distances from the sun. Our 
planet is at a certain distance from the sun, and life is 
so arranged on this planet that the lunar and solar 
life-currents must have equal force if the organism is 



208 



NATURE S FINER FORCES. 



to be maintained. The Tattvas also must be balanced. 
There may be other planes of life in which the respec 
tive powers of the two currents and the Tattvas may 
be greater or less than they are on the earth. This 
difference will secure a difference in the arrangements 
of the Nadis, and also in their shape. 

We experience this sort of thing even on our earth. 
Different animals and vegetables have different shapes. 
This is simply on account of the different Trutis on 
different planes, differently inclined to the solar axis. 
Suppose for the sake of illustration that the following 
is the sphere of the macrocosmic Prana: 




Works on astrology assign different organs to these 
astral divisions, and I shall, for the purpose of explana 
tion, assume these without further explanation. 



THE SCIENCE OF BREATH. 



209 



Thus we have, on a larger scale, the following 
diagram : 




These twelve regions comprehend the whole body 
in and out. Now, suppose there is a plane A B having 
a certain inclination to the axis of the sun, S. From 
ever)- point in the twelve regions rays fall in every 
Truti of the plane A P>. Then there are other planes, 
C D and K F, etc. It is evident that the rays falling 
on all these planes from the twelve regions, will vary 
in relative strength and position on different planes. 
It is evident that on all these planes the different 
organs will differ in shape, in strength, and in relative 
position. This gives birth to more or less varying 
nervous systems in all the Lokas, and the various 
shapes of the organisms of the earth. 



210 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

As in evolution the necessities of the mind are being 
changed, the Pranamaya Koshas change their planes, 
and it is thus that they are changed on earth according 
to the occult theory of evolution.] 

141. In the left as well as in the right there is the 
five-fold rise [of the Tattvas]. The knowledge of the 
Tattvas is eight-fold. Hear me, fair one, I will tell 
thee. 

142. The first is the number of the Tattvas; the 
second the conjunction of breath; the third is the 
signs of the breath; the fourth the place of the 
Tattvas ; 

143. The fifth is the colour of the Tattvas; the sixth 
is the Praua itself; the seventh is their taste; the eighth 
is the mode of their vibration. 

144. Hear of the three-fold Prana the Vishuvat, the 
active [sun], the passive [the moon] in these eight 
forms.* There is nothing, O lotus-faced goddess, 
beyond the breath . 

145. When by the effect of time the power of seeing 
does come it must be seen with great effort. The 
Yogis act for the purpose of deceiving time. 

[The Yogis act for the purpose of deceiving time. 
Time is the order of appearance of the various tattvic 
phases of a living organism. In man this order is 
regulated by his previous Karma. By the power of 
previous Karma, the human organism assumes different 
receptive states, and in accordance with the receptivity 

* The active is the Chara, the motor, the passive is the Achara 
or Sthira, the receiver of motion. 



THE SCIENCE OF BREATH. 2 II 

the tattvic influences of time the solar Praua cause 
pains or enjoyments of diffeivnt sorts. 

By the practice of Yoga the Yogi masters the tattvic 
changes of his body. Time is cheated. If he pushes 
the germ of disease out of his body no epidemic will 
ever affect him.] 

146. U-t a man shut his ears with his thumbs his 
nostrils with the middle ringers, his mouth with the 
last fingers and those last but one, and his eyes by the 
remaining- fingers. 

147- In this state the five Tattvas are gradually 
known as the yellow, the white, the red, the blue, and 
the spotted without any other distinct Upadhi [differ 
entia]. 

148. Looking into a mirror, let the breath be thrown 
upon it; thus let the wise man know the difference of 
the Tattvas by their forms. 

149- Quadrangular, semi-lunar, triangular, spheri 
cal, and spotted arc respectively the forms of the five 
Tattvas. 

150. Thus the first, Prithivi, flows midway; the 
second, Apas, flows downwards; the third, Ao- n i fl ows 
upwards; the fourth, Vayu, flows at acute angles; the 
A kasha flows between every two. 

151- The Apas Tattva is white; the Prithivi yellow 
the Agni red; the Vayu sky-blue; the Akasha fore 
shadows every colour. 

152. First of all flows the Vayu Tattva; secondly, 
the Tejas; thirdly, the- Prithivi: and fourthly, the" 
Apas. 



2 i2 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

153. Between the two shoulders is located the 
Agni; in the root of the navel Vayu; in the knees 
the Apas; in the feet the Prithivi; in the head the 
Akasha. 

154. The Prithivi Tattva is sweet; the Apas astrin 
gent; the Tejas pungent; the Vayn acid; the Akasha 
bitter. 

155. The Vayu flows eight fingers breadth; the 
Agni four; the Prithivi twelve; the Apas sixteen. 

156. The upward motion tends to death; the down 
ward to calmness ; the one at acute angles to restless 
ness; the middle one to endurance; the Akasha is 
common to all. 

157. During the flow of the Prithivi are performed 
acts which are expected to live long; during the Apas 
passing acts; during the Tejas harsh acts; during the 
Vayu killing, etc. 

158. Nothing ought to be done during the Akasha 
except the practice of Yoga; all other acts will remain 
without their desired effect. 

159. During the Prithivi and the Apas success is 
obtained; death comes in the Tejas; reduction in the 
Vayu. The Akasha is known by the tattvic philo 
sophers to be altogether useless. 

160. During the Prithivi income is late; during the 
Apas, immediate; loss is made manifest by the Tejas 
and the Vayu ; Akasha is altogether useless. 

161. The Prithivi Tattva is yellow, has slow motion, 
moves in the middle, comes in its flow up to the end 
of the sternum, is heavy in sound, has slight heat in 



THK SCIKXCK OF BRKATH. ^13 

temperature. It gives success in works which are 
expected to stay long. 

162. The Apas Tattva is white, has rapid motion, 
moves downwards, conies in its flow sixteen fingers 
downwards [np to the navel], is heavy in sound, is 
cool in temperature. It gives success in auspicious 
works. 

163. The Tejas Tattva is red, moves in whirls 
(Avartagah), moves upwards, comes in its flow four 
fingers downwards [up to the end of the chin], is very 
high in temperature. It gives birth to harsh actions 
[actions which, so to say, set one on fire]. 

164. The Vayu Tattva is sky-blue, moves at acute 
angles, conies in flow eight fingers downwards, is hot 
or cool in temperature. It gives success in those 
works which are transitory. 

165. The Akasha Tattva is the common surface of 
all, foreshadows the qualities of all the Tattvas. It 
gives Yoga to the Yogis. 

166. Yellow and quadrangular, sweet and moving in 
the middle, and the giver of enjoyment is the Prithivi 
Tattva, which flows twelve fingers downwards. 

167. White, semi-lunar, astringent, moving down 
wards, and the causer of benefit is the Apas Tattva, 
which is sixteen fingers in flow. 

168. Blue, spherical, acid, moving at acute angles, 
the giver of locomotion is the Vayu Tattva, which is 
eight fingers in flow. 

169. Foreshadowing all colours, of the shape of an 
ear, bitter in taste, moving everywhere through the 



214 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

giver of Moksha is the Akasha Tattva, which is use 
less in all worldly works. 

170. The Prithivi and the Apas are auspicious 
Tattvas, the Tejas is moderate in its effects, the 
Akasha and Vayu are inauspicious and cause loss and 
death to mankind. 

171. The Apas Tattva is in the east, the Prithivi in 
the west, the Vayu in the north, the Tejas in the 
south, the Akasha in the middle. 

172. When the Prithivi and the Apas are in the 
moon, and the Agni in the sun, then verily there is 
success in mild and harsh acts respectively. 

173. The Prithivi causes income during the day, 
the Apas during the night; death comes in the Tejas; 
reduction in the Vayu ; the Akasha sometimes burns. 

174. In fitness for living, in success, in income, in 
cultivation [or, according to one reading, in enjoyment 
and growth], in amassing wealth, in understanding the 
meaning of the Mantras, in questions about battle, in 
going and coming, 

175. Benefit results during the Apas Tattva; aus 
picious stay, wherever it is, during the Prithivi; by 
the Vayu they go away elsewhere; the Akasha and 
the Tejas cause loss and death. 

176. In the Prithivi comes the thought of roots 
(Mula); in the Apas and the Vayu that of living 
beings; in the Tejas comes the thought of minerals; 
in the Akasha there is void. 

177. In the Prithivi one thinks of [literally there 
are] beings of many feet; in the Apas and Vayu of 



THE SCIKXCE OK LRKATII. 215 

bipeds; in the Tejas of quadrupeds; in the Akasha of 
the footless. 

178. Mars is said to be the Tejas, the Sun the Prith- 
ivi, Saturn the Apas, and Rahu the Vayu in the right 
Nadi. 

179. The Moon is the Apas, Jupiter the Prithivi, 
Mercury the Vayu, and Venus the Tejas in the left 
Nadi ; for all acts verily. 

[The tattvic value of the planets described in these 
two verses seems to be the opinion of a few only. 
The opinion of the writer, which is also the opinion 
of the great astrologer Vardhamihira, is expressed in 
stanza 180.] 

180. Jupiter is the Prithivi; the Moon and Venus 
are the Apas; the Sun and Mars are the Tejas; the 
Dragon, the Ketu, and Saturn are Vayu; Mercury is 
the Akasha. 

181. Say during the Prithivi that the question is 
about earthly things [roots, Mfila] ; during the Apas 
about life; during the Tejas about minerals; during 
the Akasha about nothing. 

182. When the breath, leaving the Sun and the 
Moon, goes to the Rahu know that it [Prana] is in 
motion and desires another place. 

183. Pleasure [i], growth [2], affection [3], playful 
ness [4], success [5], laughing [6], in the Prithivi and 
the Apas; want of power to work in the organs [7], 
fever [8], trembling [9], going out of one s country 
[10] in the Tejas and Vayu. 

184. Loss of the life substance [n], and death [12] 



216 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

in the Akasha these twelve are the phases of the 
moon [i.e., the forms, etc., which the negative matter 
assumes] ; they ought always to be known to be with 
pains by the wise. 

[These twelve are the phases of the moon. The 
moon here means the power which gives sustenance 
to names and forms. That power, the Ravi, appears 
in twelve forms, according to tattvic changes. 

The flow of the left Nadi in its diurnal course is 
not meant here.] 

185. In the east, the west, the south, and the 
north, the Tattvas, Prithivi, etc., are powerful, so let 
it be said. 

1 86. Fair one, the body must be known as made of 
the five Mahabhutas the Prithivi, the Apas, the 
Tejas, the Vayu, and the Akasha. 

187. Bone, muscle, skin, Nadi and hair this is the 
five-fold Prithivi as laid down by the Brahmvidya [the 
divine science]. 

188. The male seed, the female germs, fat, urine, 
and saliva this is the five-fold Apas as laid down by 
the divine science. 

189. Hunger, thirst, sleep, light, drowsiness this is 
the five-fold Agni as laid down by the divine science. 

190. Removing, walking, smelling, contraction and 
inflation this is the five-fold Vayu as laid down by the 
divine science. 

191. Desire to have, desire to repel, shame, fear and 
forgetful ness this is the five-fold Akasha as laid down 
by the divine science. 



THK SCIENCE OF BREATH. 217 

192. The Pritliivi has five qualities, the Apas four, 
the Tejas three, the Vayu two, the Akasha one. This 
is a portion of tattvic knowledge. 

193. The Pritliivi is fifty Palas; the Apas forty 
Palas; the Tejas thirty; the Vayu twenty; the Akasha 
ten. 

194. In the Pritliivi income is delayed; in the Apas 
it conies at once; in the Vayu it is very little; in the 
Agni even what is in hand is destroyed. 

195. [The lunar mansions] Dhanishtha [i], Rohini 
[2], Jyeshtha [3], Anaradha [4], Shravana [5], Abhijit 
[6], and Uttarashadha [7] these are said to be the 
Pritliivi Tattva. 

196. Bharani [i], Krittika [2], Pushya [3], Magha 
[4], Pfirvaphalguni [5], Purvabhadrapada [6], and 
Svati [7], these are said to be the Tejas Tattva. 

197. Purvashadha [i], Ashlesha [2], Mfila [3], Ardra 
[4], Revati [5], Uttarabhadrapada [6], and Shata- 
bhishaj [7] these are the Apas Tattva, beloved! 

198. Vishakha [i], Uttaraphalgum [2], Hasta [3], 
Chitra [4], Punarvasu [5], Ashvini [6], and Mrigashir- 
sha [7] these are the Vayu Tattva. 

199. Whatever good or evil the messenger enquires 
about, standing towards the flowing Nadi, conies not 
to pass as he desires. In the empty Nadi it is the 
reverse. 

200. Even when the Nadi is full, but the Tattva is 
not congenial, there is no success. The sun or the 
moon gives success only when combined with the 
congenial Tattva. 



2i8 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

201. Rama got victory in an auspicious Tattva; so 
did Arjuna. The Kauravas were all killed in battle 
on account of the antagonistic Tattva. 

202. By the acquired rapidity of other births, or by 
the kindness of the Guru, some men come to know 
the nature of the Tattvas by a mind purified by 
habit. 

[Meditation on the Five Tattvasl\ 

203. Meditate upon the Prithivi Tattva with L [or 
Lam] as its algebraical symbol, as being quadrangular, 
yellow, sweet-smelling, and conferring a colour as 
pure as that of gold, freedom from disease and light 
ness of the body. 

204. Meditate upon the Apas Tattva with V [or 
Vam] as its algebraical symbol, as being semi-lunar, 
white as the moon, and giving endurance of hunger 
and thirst, etc., and producing a sensation similar to 
that of a plunge in water. 

205. Meditate upon the Tejas Tattva with R [or 
Ram] as the algebraical symbol, as being triangular, 
red, and giving the power of consuming a great 
amount of food and drink, and the endurance of burn 
ing heat. 

206. Meditate upon the Vayti, with P [or Pain] as 
the algebraical symbol, as being spherical, sky-blue, 
and giving the power of going into space, and flying 
like birds. 

207. Meditate upon the Akasha Tattva with H [or 
Ham] as the algebraical symbol, formless, foreshadow- 



THE SCIKIS CE OF BRKATH. 219 

ing many colours, and as giving the knowledge of the 
three times, and the powers Anima, etc. 

208. Where there is a man who knows the science 
of breath, there can be no wealth better than him. 
It is known that by the knowledge of breath one gets 
good fruit without much ado. 

[77/6- Auspicious Victory^ 

Said the goddess: 

209. Great lord, god of gods, giver of happiness, the 
science of the rise of breath is a very lofty science; how 
does it comprehend the knowledge of the three times? 

Said the god : 

210. Fair one, the knowledge of three times refers 
to three things, and nothing else: 

(i) Fortune. 

(ii) Victory in battle. 

(iii) Good or bad [end of other actions]. 

211. On account of the Tattva any act is good or 
bad in effect; on account of the Tattva comes victory 
or discomfiture; on account of the Tattva comes 
scarcity and abundance of wealth. The Tattvas are 
said to show themselves in these three states. 

vSaid the goddess: 

212. Great lord, god of gods, the all-comprehending 
ocean of this world is the greatest friend and help 
mate of men; [is it] he who causes the fulfilment of 
all his works? 

Said the god: 

213. The Prana alone is the highest friend, the 



220 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

Prana is the greatest helpmate. Fair one, there is no 
friend better than Prana. 

Said the goddess: 

214. How does the force of Prana stand in the 
body? What is the appearance of Prana in the body? 
How is the Prana known by the Yogis to be acting 
in the Tattvas? 

Said the god : 

215. In the city of the body the Prana is the lord 
protector; while going in, it is ten fingers, while 
going out, twelve. 

[This section refers to the human Aura. The 
subtle Prana surrounds the human gross body like a 
halo of light. The natural length from the body to 
the circumference of this halo is twelve fingers of 
the man whose Prana is measured. This length is 
affected during the ordinary course of inspiration and 
expiration. At the time of inspiration the length is 
reduced to ten fingers; at the time of expiration it is 
restored to twelve. During certain other actions, too, 
the length varies. Thus, in walking, the length of 
Prana becomes twenty-four; in running forty-two. 
In cohabitation, it becomes sixty-five; in sleeping, 
one hundred. In eating and speaking, it becomes 
eighteen. 

In ordinary men, the length is twelve fingers. The 
ordinary length is, however, reduced in extraordinary 
men. Thus: 

In those men who are free from desire, the length 
of Prana is reduced by one finger; it becomes eleven. 



THE SCIENCE OF BREATH. 221 

In men who arc always pleasant, always hilarious, 
the length is ten fingers. 

A poet has nine fingers, a speaker has eight, a seer 
has seven, a levitator has six, and so on.] 

216. In walking it is twenty-four fingers, in running 
forty-two; in cohabitation sixty-five; in sleeping a 
hundred fingers. 

217. The natural length of Prana, O goddess, is 
twelve fingers. In eating and speaking it stretches to 
eighteen fingers. 

218. When the Prana is reduced by one finger free 
dom from desire is the result. Pleasure results when 
it is reduced by two; poetical power when by three; 

219. Power of speech when by four; second sight 
when by five ; levitation when by six ; great rapidity 
when by seven; 

220. The eight Siddhis when by eight; the nine 
Nidhis when by nine; the ten figures when by ten; 
the loss of the shadow when by eleven; 

221. When it is reduced by twelve the inspiratory 
and expiratory motions drink of the fountain of im 
mortality in the sun [the centre of Prana]. When the 
Prana fills the body up to the end of the nails even, 
for whom then is food? 

222. Thus has been described the law of Prana. It 
can be known by the teaching of a Guru, not by 
millions of sciences and Shastras. 

223. If by chance the moon does not set in in the 
morning, and the sun in the evening, they do so 
respectively after mid-day and midnight. 



222 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

[Battle.] 

224. In warfare in distant countries the moon is 
victorious; in near places the sun. When the foot 
raised first in walking belongs to the flowing Nadi, 
complete success is the result. 

225. In beginning a journey, in marriage, in enter 
ing any town, etc., in all auspicious acts, the flow of 
the moon is good. 

226. By putting the enemy s army towards the empty 
Nadi, and one s own towards the full, when the Tattva 
is congenial, one may conquer the whole world. 

227. Let one give battle in the direction towards 
which the breath flows; victory is certain, even if 
Indra be in front. 

228. If a man puts a question about battle, he will 
win if he is towards the flowing Nadi; will lose if he 
is towards the other. 

229. The Prithivi Tattva points to wounds in the 
belly; the Apas in the feet; the Agni in the thighs; 
the Vayu in the hands; 

230. The Akasha in the head. These five-fold 
wounds have been described in the Science of Breath. 

231. He whose name has even letters wins, if lie 
asks the question during the flow of the moon. He 
who has an odd number of letters in his name wins if 
he asks the question during the flow of the sun. 

232. When the question is put during the moon 
there will be a peaceful termination ; during the sun 
the fight must come. 

233. During the Prithivi Tattva, the fight will be 



THR SCIENCE OF BREATH. 223 

equal. During the Apas the result will be equal. 
During the Tejas there will be defeat. During the 
Yuyu and the Akasha death will ensue. 

234. When by some cause the flow of the breath is 
not clearly felt at the time of the question, let the wise 
man resort to the following expedient. 

235. Sitting motionless let him have a flower thrown 
upon himself. The flower will fall on the full side. So 
let him give the answer. 

236. Here or elsewhere the knower of the laws of 
breath is very powerful; who is more powerful than 
he? 

Said the goddess: 

237. These are the laws of victory when men fight 
among themselves; how does victory come when they 
fight with Yama [the god of death]. 

Said the god : 

238. Let him meditate upon the lord when the 
Prana is calm; during the flow of the moon and then 
give up life when after that the two Pranas coincide. 
He will have what he desires great benefit and 
success. 

239. The whole manifested world has come out of 
the unmanifested. That manifested world disappears 
in the unmanifested when the fact is known. 



[The Year.} 

260. On the first lunar day of the white fortnight of 
the month of Chaitra, let the wise Yogi see both the 



224 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

northward and southward journey of the sun by an 
analysis of the Tattvas. 

[On this day begins the Samvat year of the era of 
King Vikramaditya.] 

261. If at the time of the rise of the moon, the 
Prithivi, the Apas, or the Vayu Tattva be flowing, all 
kinds of grain will be plentiful. 

262. The flow of the Tejas and the Akasha gives 
fearful famines. This is the nature of time. In this 
way is known the effect of time in the year, the month, 
and the day. 

263. If the Sushumna, which is bad in all worldly 
concerns, be flowing, there will be confusion in the 
land, subversion of the kingdom, or fear thereof, 
epidemic and all sorts of diseases. 

264. When the sun passes into Aries, let the Yogi 
meditate upon the breath, and, finding out the pre 
valent Tattva, tell the world what will be the nature 
of the next year. 

[On this day begins the solar year. The tattvic 
colour of universal Prana the external one at any 
time is determined by the positions of the sun and 
moon and by those of the planets, whose presence 
exercises a very potent influence upon the tattvic value 
of any moment. This tattvic value changes according 
to a universal law. 

If at any time the Apas Tattva is flowing, it can 
never abruptly pass into the Tejas, but must do so 
grade by grade. These atmospheric Tattvas run 
many minor courses. Hence it is possible, though 



THE SCIENCE OF BREATH. 225 

extremely difficult and complicated, to calculate from 
the tattvic value of one moment the tattvic value of 
any future moment. 

The living world is always affected by these tattvic 
changes. In the act of breathing nature has furnished 
a very exact and faithful scale for the measurement of 
tattvic changes. Hence the Yogi, who can live in 
conformity with time and space can foretell the future 
very easily. Ah! but how difficult is it to live in 
perfect conformity with time and space !] 

265. The good aspect of the year, the month, and 
the day is known by the Tattvas, Prithivi, etc., and 
the bad one by the Akasha and the Vayu. 

266. If the Prithivi Tattva flows there will be plenty 
and prosperity in the kingdom, and the earth will be 
full of good crops; there will be much comfort and 
enjoyment. 

267. If the Apas Tattva flows there will be plenty 
of rain, plenty of grain, no want, great comfort, and 
well-grown fields. 

268. If the Agni Tattva flows there will be famine, 
subversion, or fear thereof; there will be fearful epi 
demics and the least possible rain. 

269. If the Vayu Tattva flows when the sun goes 
into Aries, there will be confusion, accidents, famine, 
little rain, or the Itis. 

[The Itis are six afflictions which distress the crops 
too much rain, etc.] 

270. If the Akasha Tattva flows when the sun goes 
into Aries, there will be want of grain and of comfort. 



226 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

271. When the full breath is in its own proper place, 
with its own proper Tattvas, success of all sorts is the 
result. If the sun and the moon are the reverse, grain 
must be laid up [against a scarcity]. 

272. If the Agni Tattva flows there will be in 
equality of prices; if Akasha, there will be continuous 
scarcity. Let things be laid up then; there will be a 
rise in the prices two months thereafter. 

273. When the breath is changing into the sun it 
gives birth to fearful diseases. When the Akasha and 
the Vayu are conjoined with the Tejas, the earth will 
become the picture of hell. 

[The disturbance of tattvic balance is disease; hence 
every Tattva has its own diseases.] 

[Disease.] 

274. In the Prithivi Tattva there is its own disease; 
in the Apas Tattva the disease of the same Tattva; 
and so in the Tejas, the Vayu, and the Akasha, similar 
and hereditary diseases. 

[When two men come together their Pranas ex 
change colour. It is on this account that one can 
measure from the momentary reflection in one s own 
body the colour of any other man that is near him. 
The present of every man is the father of his future. 
Hence one can predict the end of any disease, or the 
time of death. 

All that has been ascertained to be true on these 
heads has been described in the various sections of 
this book.] 



THE SCIENCE OF BREATH. 227 

275. When the messenger [querent] comes first to 
wards the empty half of the body, and then towards 
the full half, he about whom the question is put will 
surely live, even if he be [apparently] lying in the 
swoon [of death]. 

276. If the question is put to the Yogi while sitting 
in the same direction with the patient, he will live 
even though many a disease may have gathered 
strength in his body. 

277. When the breath is in the right nostril, and 
the messenger speaks of his affliction in piteous 
accents, the patient will live. During the moon the 
effect is ordinary. 

2/8. If the question be asked while holding the 
picture of the patient towards the Prana and looking 
at it, the patient will live. 

279. When during the flow of the sun or moon, the 
Yogi gets into a carriage and the question is put to 
him while there, the messenger will have success in 
his desire. 

280. When at the time of the question the Yogi 
sits upstairs while the patient is downstairs, he will 
certainly live. If the patient be upstairs, he will 
certainly go to the house of Yama [the god of death]. 

281. If at the time of the question the messenger is 
towards the empty nostril, but speaks the reverse of 
what he desires, he will have success. If the reverse 
is the case, the result too is the reverse. 

282. When the patient is towards the moon and 
the asker towards the sun the patient will certainly 



228 NATURE S FIXER FORCES. 

die, even if he be surrounded by hundreds of phy 
sicians. 

283. When the patient is towards the sun, and the 
asker towards the moon, then too the patient dies, 
even if Sambhii be his protector. 

284. When one Tattva is out of its proper time, 
people are subdued by disease; when two are wrong, 
they cause misfortune to friends and relations; if it 
is out of place for two fortnights death is the result. 

[The Prediction of Dcath^\ 

285. At the beginning of a month, a fortnight, and 
a year, let the wise man try to find out the time of 
death from the movements of the Prana. 

286. The lamp of the five Tattvas receives its oil 
from the moon. Protect it from the solar force; life 
will thereby become long and stationary. 

287. If by mastering the flow of breath, the sun is 
kept in check, life is prolonged. Even solar time is 
cheated. 

288. The moon falls from heaven giving the nectar 
of life to the lotuses of the body. By the constant 
practice of good actions and Yoga one becomes im 
mortal by the lunar nectar. 

289. Make the moon flow during the day, the sun 
during the night. He who practises thus is verily a 
true Yogi. 

290. If for one night and day the breath flows con 
tinuously by one Nadi, death will ensue in three years. 

291. He whose breath flows by the Pingala two 



THE SCIENCE OF BREATH. 22Q 

whole days and nights continuously has, as the 
knowers of the Tattvas say, two years more to live. 

292. If the moon continuously flows during the 
night and the sun during the day, death will come 
within six months. 

293. When the sun flows altogether, and the moon 
is altogether unseen, death comes in a fortnight. So 
says the Science of Death. 

294. He whose breath flows from one nostril for 
three nights continuously has, so say the wise, a year 
only to live. 

295. Take a vessel of the Kansiya alloy [bell-metal]. 
Fill it with water, and see in it the reflection of the 
sun. If in the midst of the reflection is seen a hole 
the seer will die within ten days. If the reflection is 
smoky, death will come the same day. If it is seen 
towards the south, west, or north death will come 
within six, two or three months respectively. Thus 
has been described the measure of life by the omni 
scient. 

296. If a man sees the figure of the messenger of 
death he is sure to die. 

[The messenger of death has red or reddish clothes, 
matted hair, diseased teeth, oil-besmeared body, a 
weeping and red-hot face, a body besmeared with 
ashes, flying flames of fire, having long heavy rods, 
and standing towards the empty Nadi.] 

297. When the skin is cool but the inside is hot, 
death must come within a month. 

298. When a man changes suddenly and unaccount- 



230 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

ably from good habits to bad, or from bad habits to 
good, he is sure to die. 

299. He whose breath coining out of the nose is 
cool, but corning out of the mouth is hot like fire, is 
sure to die of great heat. 

300. He who sees hideous figures, and bright light 
without making out the flame, dies before nine 
months. 

301. He who suddenly begins to feel heavy bodies 
light, and light bodies heavy, and he who being dark 
in colour begins in disease to look gold -coloured, must 
die. 

302. He whose hands, chest, and feet become at once 
dry after bathing, has not ten nights to live. 

303. He who becomes dim of sight, and cannot see 
his face in the pupil of another s eye must assuredly 
die. 

304. Now will I tell thee something about the 
shadow-figure (Chhaya Purusha). Xnowing this, man 
very soon becomes the knower of the three times. 

305. I shall speak of those experiments by means of 
which even distant death is known. I shall describe 
all these in accordance with Shivagama. 

306. Going to a lonely place and standing with the 
back towards the sun let a man look with attention at 
the neck of the shade he throws on the ground. 

307. Let him see this for as long a time as he can 
calmly repeat the words: "Om kram parabrahmane 
namah" for one hundred and eight times. Then let 
him look up into the sky. He will thus see Shankara 



THE SCIENCE OF BREATH. 231 

[the figure of a being capable of appearing in many 
colours]. 

308. By doing this for six months, the Yogi becomes 
the lord of those who walk on earth ; in two years he 
becomes absolutely independent and his own master. 

309. He obtains the knowledge of the three times 
and great bliss. There is nothing impossible for the 
constant practice of Yoga. 

310. The Yogi who sees this figure in the clear 
heavens having a dark colour, dies within six months. 

311. When it is yellow there is fear of disease; when 
it is red there will be loss; when it has many colours 
there will be great confusion and dejection. 

312. If the figure be wanting in feet, shanks, 
abdomen and the right arm a relation is sure to die. 

313. If the left arm is wanting the wife will die; 
when the chest and the right arm is wanting, death 
and destruction will come. 

314. When the faeces and gas escape together, the 
man is sure to die in ten days. 

315. When the moon flows altogether, and the sun 
is not seen at all, death comes surely in a month. So 
says the Science of Death. 

316. Those whose death is near cease to see the 
Arandhati, the Dhruva, the steps of Vishnu, and the 
circle of the mothers as they are pointed out to them. 

317. The Arandhati is the tongue; the Dhruva the 
tip of the nose ; the eyebrows are the steps of Vishnu ; 
the pupil of the eye the circle of the mothers. 

318. The man who ceases to see the eyebrows dies 



232 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

within nine days; he who ceases to see the pupil of 
the eye dies within five days ; he who ceases to see the 
nose dies within three days ; he who ceases to see the 
tongue dies within one day. 

319. The pupil of the eye is seen by pressing the 
eye near the nose. 

[The Nddts.} 

320. The Ida is also technically called Ganga; the 
Pingala Yamuna; the Sushumna Sarasvati; the con 
junction is called Prayaga. 

321. Let the Yogi sit in the posture called Padma- 
sana, and perform Pranayama. 

322. The Yogis must know the Piiraka, the Rechaka, 
and the third, Kumbhaka, for obtaining power over 
the body. 

323. The Puraka causes growth and nourishment, 
and equalizes the humours; the Kumbhaka causes 
stability, and increases the security of life. 

324. The Rechaka takes away all sins. He who 
practises this reaches the state of Yoga. 

325. In the Kumbhaka hold the air in as much as 
possible; let it go out by the moon and in by the sun. 

326. The sun drinks the moon, the moon drinks the 
sun; by saturating one with the other, one may live as 
long as the moon and the planets. 

327. The Nfidi flows in one s own body. Have 
power over that; if it is not let go through the mouth 
or nose, one becomes a young man. 

328. When the mouth, nose, eyes, and ears are 



THE SCIENCE OE BREATH. 233 

stopped by the fingers, the Tattvas begin to take their 
rise before the eyes. 

329. He who knows their colour, their motion, their 
taste, their places, and their signs, becomes in this 
world equal to the god Rudra. 

330. He who knows all this, and reads it always, is 
freed from all pain and gets what he desires. 

331. He who has the knowledge of breath in his 
head, has fortune at his feet. 

332. Like the One in the Vedas, and the sun in the 
universe, is the knower of the Science of Breath to 
be honoured. He who knows the Science of Breath 
and the Philosophy of the Tattvas, knows that even 
millions of elixirs are not equal to it. 

334. There is nothing in the world which will release 
you of the debt of the man who gives you the know 
ledge of the word [Om] and of breath. 

335. Sitting in his own place, with measured food, 
and sleep, let the Yogi meditate upon the highest Atma 
[whose reflection the Breath is]. Whatever he says 
will come to pass. 



THE END. 



GLOSSARY- 



GLOSSARY. 

ABHIJIT, one of the lunar mansions. 

ABHINIVESHA, the technical name for that weakness of the mind 
which causes fear of death. It is one of the five "miseries" of 
the Yogis. 

AGAMA, one of the three means of knowledge. The knowledge 
which comes to us from the experience of researches of others, 
which we take on authority, is said to come from Agama. The 
Vedas are called Agama for the same reason. 

Aoxi, fire. A name of the luminiferous ether, otherwise called 
the Tejas Tattva. Its colour is red. Other colours result from 
a composition with other Tattvas. 

AHANKARA, egoism. 

AHAVANIYA, one of three fires which were maintained in an ancient 
Hindu household. 

AKASHA, the name of the first Tattva, the sonoriferous ether. 
This is a very important Tattva. All the other Tattvas come 
out of it, and live and work in it. All the forms and ideas of 
the universe live in it. There is no living thing in the world 
which is not preceded by Akasha or followed by it. This is 
that state from which we may expect every other substance 
and every other Tattva to immediately come out, or, more 
strictly, in which everything is, but is not seen. 

AI.AMBUSHA, or ALAMMUKHA, a tube in the human body which 
is said to open in the mouth; therefore the alimentary canal. 

AMBAIUSHA, one of the five hells. The qualities of the Apas 
Tattva are found here in painful excess. 

AMRITA, the nectar of the gods. 

ANANDA, that state of bliss in which the soul merges into the spirit. 
It also means the spiritual state of tattvic atmosphere. 



238 NATURE S FINER FORCKS. 

ANANDAMAYA KOSHA, the spiritual coil, the spiritual monad. 

ANARADHA, the seventeenth lunar mansion. 

ANDHATAMISHRA, the hell where the qualities of the Akasha Tattv.i 

are found in painful excess. 
ANUMANA, inference. 
APANA, that manifestation of the life principle which throws out 

of the system things which it no longer requires, such as faeces, 

urine, etc. 
APANTARTAMAH, a Vedic Rishi, said to have incarnated as Vyasa 

Krishna Dvaipayana, the author of the Mahuhhdrata, etc. 
APAS, the name of one of the five Tattvas, translated into English 

as the gustiferous ether. 
ARDRA, one of the lunar asterisms. 
ASAMpRAjiNATA, the higher state of mental trance, in which the 

mind is perfectly absorbed in the soul. The lower state is known 

as Samprajnata. 

ASAT, the negative breath or phase of matter. 
ASHLESHA, a lunar mansion. 
ASHViNi, the first lunar mansion. 
ASMITA, (i) a synonym of Ahankara; egoism, (ii) Making part or 

parcel of self, (iii) The notion that the self is nothing separate 

from percepts and concepts. 
AVIDYA, false knowledge. 

BHARANI, the second lunar mansion. 

BHI")TAS, the shells of the departed spirits. 

BRAHMA (with the short a), also known as Parabrahman, the One 

Absolute, from which comes out the universe. 
BRAHMA (with the long a), the self-conscious universe, the sixth 

principle of the universe. 
BRAHMADANDA, the vertebral column. 
BRAHMANDA, the universe. Literally, the Egg of Brahma. 
BRAHMARANDHRA, the hole in the head through which the soul 

of the Yogi passes out of the body. The spinal canal ends in 

this. 

BRAHMAVIDYA, the Divine Science, Theosophia. 
BUDDHI, understanding. 



GLOSSARY. 



239 



CH, the symbol for one of those vessels which emanate from the 
heart. 

CHH, the symbol for another of them. 

CHAITRA, a lunar month of the Indian Calendar, corresponding 
generally to February-March. 

CHAKRA, a circle, a disc. 

CHAKSHUS, the eye; the ocular modification of Prana. 

CHAXDRA, the moon, the left breath. 

CHANDRAI,OK:A, the lunar sphere. 

CHATURYUGA, the four Yugas Satya, Treta, Dvapara and Kali- 
put together; a period of 12,000 Daiva years. 

CHHANDOGYA, the name of a Upanishad, a class of treatises on 
the Indian Ksoteric Philosophy. 

CHITRA, one of the lunar asterisms. 

DAIVA, pertaining to the gods (Devas). A Daiva day = one year of 
men. A Daiva year = 365 such days. 

DAMINI, the name of one of the vessels of the human body, pro 
bably the one with all its ramifications which proceeds to the 
breast of the female (?). I have not yet found it described any 
where. 

DKVACHAN, a Tibetan term now used in English to denote that 
state of bliss which one enjoys, after death, in the lunar sphere. 

DEVADATTA, one of the ten modifications of the life principle. 

DHANANJAYA, one of the ten modifications of the life principle. 

DHANISHTHA, a lunar mansion. 

DHARANA, concentration of the mind. 

DRKSHKANA, the third part of a sign of the Zodiac. 

DUHKKHA, pain. 

DVADASHANSHA, the twelfth part of a sign of the Zodiac. 

DVKSHA, that manifestation of the mind which repels disagreeable 
things. 

G, the symbol for one of the vessels which branch from the heart. 
GANDHARI, the Nadi which goes to the left eye. 
GANDHARVA, a heavenly musician. 
GAXGA, a technical term for the sun breath. 



240 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

GARGYA SAURYAYANA, the name of an ancient philosophical 

student mentioned in the Upanishads. 
GARHAPATYA, one of the three household fires. 
GH, the symbol for one of the tubes which proceed from the heart 

to branch off all over the body. 
GHARI, or GHATI, (i) a period of twenty-four minutes, (ii) A lunar 

Ghati is somewhat less one-sixtieth of a lunar day. 
GHRANA, the organ of smell, the odoriferous modification of 

Praua. 

HA, i (i) the technical symbol for the process of expiration, (ii) 
HAM, ; The symbol for the Akasha Tattva, the neuter nominative 

of the same. 
HAMSA, from Ham and Sa, is the technical name of Parabrahman, 

because in this state both the positive and negative motions lie 

in posse. 

HAMSACHARA, the technical term for the process of breathing. 
HASTA, a lunar mansion. 

HASTIJIHVA, a Nadi which goes to the right eye. 
HORA, the half of a Zodiacal sign. 

IDA, the Nadi which spreads in the left part of the body; the left 

sympathetic. 

INDRA, the ruler of the gods; the wielder of the thunderbolt. 
ISHOPANISHAD, the name of a Upanishad. 
ISHVARA, the sixth principle of the universe (according to the 

septenary division); the same as Brahma. 

J, the symbol for one of the twelve stem Nadis which branch off 

from the heart. 
JAGRATA, the waking state. 
JH, the symbol for one of the stem Nadis proceeding from the 

heart. 
JYKSHTHA, a lunar mansion. 

K, the symbol for one of the Nadis proceeding from the heart. 
KAJ.A, a division of time =* i * minutes. 



GLOSSARY. 241 

KALASUTRA, the name of a hell in which the qualities of the 
Vayu Tattva are found in painful excess. 

KAIJ, the name of a cycle of 2,400 Daiva years. The Iron 
Age. 

KAMAI,A, the lotus. A centre of nervous force in the body. 

KANSIYA, an alloy of zinc and copper, largely used in making 
vessels. 

KASHTHA, a division of time = 3 } seconds. 

KATHOPANISIIAD, one of the Upanishads. 

KH, the symbol for a Nadi proceeding from the heart. 

KOMAI.A, literally, soft. 

KRAM, the Tantrik symbol for the idea of the human mind, step 
ping beyond the ordinary bounds of the visible and thus looking 
into the invisible. The ancient Tantrik philosophers had sym 
bols to denote almost every idea. This was absolutely necessary 
to them, because they held that if the human mind were fixed 
upon any object with sufficient strength for a certain time, it 
was sure by the force of will to attain the object. The attention 
was secured generally by constantly muttering certain words, 
and thus keeping the idea always before the mind. Symbols 
were therefore used to denote every idea. Thus "Hrien" de 
notes modesty, "Kliw" denotes love, "Aiw" denotes protection, 
"Shaum" denotes welfare, and so on. Similar symbols were 
used to name blood-vessels, etc. The Tantrik science is now 
almost entirely lost; there is at present no available compre 
hensive key to the symbolical terminology, and much of the 
symbolical language is, therefore, unfortunately, up to the pre 
sent time, simply unintelligible. 
KRIKII,A, that manifestation of the life principle which causes 

hunger. 

KRITTIKA, the third lunar mansion. 
KUHU, that Nadi which goes to the generative organs. 
KUMBHAKA, the practice in Pranayama of drawing as deep a 
breath as possible and holding the inspired air in as long as 

possible. 
Kf RMA, that manifestation of the life principle which cause: 

twinklings of the eye. 



242 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

LAM (L), the symbol for the Prithivi Tattva. 
LOKA, a sphere of being. 

MAGHA, the tenth lunar mansion. 

MAHABHUTA, a synonym of Tattva. 

MAHAKALA, the hell in which the qualities of the Prithivi Tattva 
are found in painful excess. 

MAHAMOHA, one of the five miseries of Patanjali. A synonym of 
Raga (desire to obtain or retain). 

MAHESHVARA, the great Lord, the great Power. 

MAHURTA, a division of time = forty-eight minutes. 

MANAS, mind; the third principle of the universe from below. 

MANOMAYA KOSHA, the mental coil. The individualized mind 
which is, as it were, a sheath for the spiritual energy to manifest 
itself in, in the particular way we find the mind working. 

MANU, the Being conceived as the substratum of the third prin 
ciple of the universe from below. The idea of the humanity of 
one of those cycles known as Manvantaras. 

MANUSHA, pertaining to men; human. Manusha day, the ordi 
nary day of twenty- four hours; Manusha year, the ordinary 
solar year. The lunar month is known as the day of the fathers 
(Pitriya), the solar year itself is known as the clay of the 
gods. 

MANVANTARA, a cycle of seventy-one Chaturyugas, during which 
one Manu reigns, i.e., during which exists humanity of a certain 
type. 

MANVANTARIC, pertaining to a Manvantara. 

MATARISHVA, literally, he who sleeps in space. Applied to Prana 
as performing the functions of recording the acts of men, etc. 

MERU, also called Sumeru. The Puranas speak of its being a 
mountain (Parvata, Achala), on which is situated Svarga, the 
heaven of India, containing the cities of gods, with celestial 
spirits for inhabitants. It is, in fact, spoken of as the Olympus 
of the Hindus. The fact is that Meru is no mountain of earthly 
mould, such as we are familiar with on the face of our earth. It 
is the boundary line which divides the atmosphere of earth 
from the upper air, the pure ether, or, in our terminology, the 



GLOSSARY. 243 

Mem is the bounding circle of the terrestrial Prana. This side 
the circle is our planet, with its atmosphere; that side the celes 
tial Prana, the abode of the celestials. The sage Vyasa describes 
the Bhurloka (or earth) as extending from sea level to the back 
of the Mem. On the face of the so-called mountain live the 
celestials, hence the earth s boundary is its back. This line is 
called a mountain from its fixed, unchangeable position. 

MOHA, forget fulness. It is a synonym of Asmita, one of the five 
"miseries" of Patanjali. 

MOKSHA, that state of being in which the downward tendencies 
of the mind absolutely die out, and in which, therefore, the mind 
remains merged in the soul without the danger of rebirth. 

MRIGASHIRSHA, a lunar mansion. 

MUIA, a lunar asterism. 

N, the symbol for one of those Nadis which ramify from the 
heart. 

NADI, this word means a tube, a vessel. It is applied indiscrimi 
nately to blood-vessels and nerves. The idea of the word is that 
of a tube, a vessel, or even a line, along which something flows, 
be it a liquid or the current of a force. 

NAGA, that manifestation of life which causes belching. 

NAMAH, obeisance. 

NASAD ASIT, a hymn of the Rig Veda, the one hundred and twenty- 
ninth of the tenth Mandala, which begins with these words. In 
this hymn is found the germ of the Science of Breath. 

NAVANSHA, the ninth part of a sign of the Zodiac. 

NIDRA, dreamless sleep. 

NIMRSHA, a division of time = -*-^ of a second. Literally, it means 
the twinkling of the eye. 

NIRVANA, the extinguishment of the downward tendencies of the 
mind. It is a synonym of Moksha. 

NIRVICHARA, the ultra-meditative intuition in which, without the 
least effort of thought, the past and future, the antecedents and 
consequents of a present phenomenon at once make their ap 
pearance in the mind. 

NIRVITARKA, a kind of intuition (Sampatti), the wordless in- 



244 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

tuition. It is that state of mental lucidity in which the truths 
of nature shine of themselves without the intervention of 
words. 

PADA, foot; that modification of life matter which acts in walking. 

PADMA, a synonym of Kauiala. 

PAIA, a measure, a weight, about i-J oz. 

PAM (P), the algebraical symbol for the Vayu Tattva. Pain is the 

neuter nominative of the letter Pa, the first letter of the word 

Pavana, a synonym of Vayu. 
PANCHI-KARANA, literally, the word means making five-fold. It 

has been roughly translated as the division into five. It means 

the process of a minimum of a Tattva being composed with 

those of others. Thus, after the process, every molecule, say of 

the Prithivi Tattva, will consist of eight minima. 

p . , . . _ Prithivi Akasha Vayu Agiii Apas 

~~T~ + ~~8~~ + ~T~ + ST + ~8~ 

And so on. In Ananda the Tattvas are single. In Vijnana and 

afterwards each is five-fold, and hence each has a colour, etc. 
PANI, hand ; manual power. 
PARABRAHMAN, this is now well known as the causeless cause of 

the Universe, the One Absolute All. 
PARABRAHMANE, the dative of Parabrahman, meaning "to Para- 

brahma." 
PARAMKSHTHI SUKTA, the "Xasad asit" hymn noticed above is 

also called the Parameshthi Sukta. 
PARAVAIRAGVA, that state of the mind when its manifestations 

become absolutely potential, and lose all power of coining into 

the actual without the nod of the soul. In this state every high 

power makes its appearance easily in the mind. 
PARINIRVANA, the last state in which the human soul can live, 

and the psychic, mental, and physiological influences have no 

power on that. 
PATANJAU, the author of the Aphorisms of Yoga, the science of 

mental application and embellishment. 
PAYU, excretive organs; the modification of Prana which goes to 

make up these. 



GLOSSARY. 245 

lvA, the Nadi, and the system of Nadis which works in the 
right half of the body; the right sympathetic. 
PITRIYA, pertaining to the fathers. Pitriya day means the lunar 
month. 

PITTA, a synonym of Agni; means heat, temperature. 
PRAKRITI, the undifferentiated cosmic matter. 

PRALAYA, the cessation of the creative energies of the world; the 
period of rest. 

PRAMAXA, means of knowledge. These are: (i) Senses, (ii) Infer 
ence, (iii) Authority ; or, in other words, the experience of others. 

PRANA, the life principle of the universe and its localized mani 
festation; the life principle of man and other living beings. It 
consists of an ocean of the five Tattvas. The suns are the 
different centres of the ocean of Prana. Our solar system is 
filled to its extremest limit with Prana, and it is in this ocean 
that move the various heavenly bodies. It is held that the 
\vhole ocean of Prana, with the sun and moon and other planets, 
is a complete picture of every living organism on earth, or, for 
that matter, of any planet. Hence is Prana spoken of some 
times as a person, a living being. All the manifestations of life 
in the body are known as minor Pranas. The pulmonary mani 
festation is known as Prana by preeminence. The positive 
phase of matter is also so called as distinguished from Rayi, the 
negative phase of life matter. 

PRAXAMAYA KOSHA, the coil of life; the life principle. 

PRANAYAMA, the practice of drawing deep breaths, keeping the 
indrawn air inside as long as possible, and then breathing the 
lungs out as empty as possible. 

PRAPATHAKA, a chapter of the Chhandogya Upanishad. 

PRASHNOPANISHAD, one of the Upauishads. 

PRATYAKSHA, perception. 

PRAYAGA, really the conjunction of the three rivers, tho Ganges, 
the Jumna, and the now nowhere visible Sarasvati at Allahabad. 
In the terminology of the Science of Breath it is applied to the 
conjunction of the right and left streams of breath. 

PRITIIIVI, one of the five Tattvas; the odoriferous ether. 

PUNARVASU, one of the lunar mansions. 



246 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

PHRAKA, the process in Pranayjima of filling the lungs with ns 

much air as possible, drawing as deep a breath as possible. 
PURVABHADRAPAPA, one of the lunar mansions. 
PURVASHADHA, one of the lunar mansions. 
PusiiA, the name of the Nadi which goes to the right ear. 
PUSHYA, one of the lunar mansions. 

RAGA, (i) that manifestation of the mind which seeks to retain 
pleasure-giving objects, (ii) A mode of music. There are eight 
modes of music, and each of these has several minor modes 
called Raginis. Each Ragini has again several harmonies. 

RAGINI (see Raga). 

RAM, neuter nominative of Ra; stands as the symbol for the Agni 
Tattva. 

RASANA, the organ of taste. 

RAURAVA, the hell in which the qualities of the Tejas Tattva are 
found in painful excess. 

RAYI, the negative phase of matter, distinguished from the posi 
tive phase by its impressibility. In fact, it is the cooler life- 
matter, while the hotter is named Prana. 

RECHAKA, the practice in Pranayama of driving the breath out cf 
the lungs. 

REVATI, one of the lunar mansions. 

RIG VEDA, the oldest and most important of the Vedas. 

RITAMBHARA, the faculty of psychic perception by which the 
realities of the world are known with as much truth and exact 
ness as the external things are known by ordinary perception. 

ROIIINI, the fourth lunar mansion. 

SA, the symbol for the process of inspiration. The Shakti, the 

receptive modification of life-matter, is also called Sa. 
SADHAKAPITTA, the temperature of the heart, said to be the cause 

of intelligence and understanding. 
SAMADHI, trance; the state in which the mind is so much absorbed 

in the object of its pursuit, or in the soul, as to forget itself in 

the object of its attention. 
SAMANA, that manifestation of life which in the abdomen is said to 

cause the absorption and distribution of food all over the body. 



GLOSSARY. 247 

SAMimf, the male principle; the positive phase of matter. A 

name of the god Shiva. 
SAMPRAJNATA, a kind of Samadhi; that in which the mental 

application is rewarded by the discovery of truth. 
SANDHI, the conjunction of the positive and negative phases of 
an}- force. This is a synonym of Sushumna. The conjunction 
of two Tattvas. When one Tattva passes into another the 
Akasha intervenes. In fact, there can be no change from one 
state of matter to another without this all-pervading Tattva 
intervening. This intervening state is, however, not the Sandhi. 
By tattvic conjunction a new conjunct Tattva is always pro 
duced. This is indicated by the length of the breath. Thus, 
when the Agni and the Yayu conjoin, the length is somewhere 
between these two. Similarly for other Tattvas. If the positive 
and negative phases in any object make their appearance in 
regular immediate succession for some time, they will be said to 
be in conjunction (Sandhi). If, however, coming from opposite 
directions, they cancel each other, the result is either Akasha or 
Sushumna. The reader will perceive that there is very little 
difference, and sometimes none at all, in the states of Akasha, 
Sandhi, and Sushumna. If Akasha remains stationary, it is 
Sushumna; if Sushumna tends towards production, it becomes 
Akasha. In fact, Akasha is that state which immediately fore 
shadows any other tattvic state of being. 

SANSKARA, acquired velocity; acquired habits. A synonym of 
Vasana. 

SARASVATI, the goddess of speech. 

SAT, the first state of the universe, in which every form of the 
living universe, even Ishvara himself, lay latent. It is that state 
from which the non-composite Tattvas are first emitted. 

SATYA, veracity; truthfulness; truth. 

SAVICHARA, the meditative intuition. (See Nirvitarka and Nir- 
vichara.) 

SAVITARKA, a kind of intuition ; the verbal intuition. 

SIIAKTI, a power; the negative phase of any force; the consort of 
a god, the god being the positive phase of the force. 

SHANK H. A.YAU, the name of a drm>-. 



248 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

SHANKHINI, a Nadi, with all its ramifications, which goes to the 

anus. 
SHASTRA, the sacred books of the Hindus. The six schools of 

philosophy. 

SHATABHISHAJ, a lunar mansion. 
SHATACHAKRA NIRUPANA, the name of a work on the philosophy 

of the Tantrists. 
SHIVAGAMA, the name of an ancient book. The present treatise 

on the Science of Breath contains only the subject of one 

chapter of that book, which is now nowhere found. 
SHRAVANA, a lunar mansion. 
SHROTRA, ear; the auditory phase of life-matter. 
SHVF.TAKETU, the name of an ancient philosopher who is repre 
sented in the Chhandogya Upanishad as reading Brahmavidya 

with his father Gautama. 
SMRITI, the faculty of retentive memory. 
STHULA, gross. 
SxmUA SHARIRA, the gross body as distinguished from the higher 

subtle principles. 
SUKHA, the feeling of pleasure, 
the sun. 

, the solar sphere. 
SORYAMANDAIA, the portion of space where the influence of the 

sun reaches. 
SUSHUMNA, (i) the Nadi which spreads in the middle of the body. 

(ii) The spinal chord, with all its ramifications. (Hi) That state of 

force which is pregnant of both the negative and positive phases; 

when neither the moon-breath nor the sun-breath flows, the 

Prana is said to be in Sushuruna. 
SUSHUPTI, dreamless sleep, the state of the soul when the 

manifestations of the mind experienced in dream are at 

rest. 

SVAPNA, a dream. 

SVARA, the current of the life-wave; the Great Breath; the breath 
of man. The Great Breath, on whatever plane of life, has five 
modifications, the Tattvas. 
SVATI, a lunar mansion. 



GLOSSARY. 249 

T, the name of one of the Nadis which ramify from the heart. 

TAMAS, a synonym of Avidya. 

TAXTRA, a class of treatises on the science of the human body 
and soul. They comprehend a great deal of Yoga. The language 
which they use is highly symbolical, and the formulae of their 
faith are little more than algebraical expressions without, ;it 
present, any available key. 

TATTVA, (i) a mode of motion, (ii) The central impulse which 
keeps matter in a certain vibratory state, (iii) A distinct form of 
vibration. The Great Breath gives to Prakriti five sorts of ele 
mentary extension. The first and the most important of these 
is the Akasha Tattva; the remaining four are the Prithivi, Vayu, 
Apas, and Agni. Every form and every motion is a manifesta 
tion of these Tattvas singly or in conjunction, as the case may be. 

TEJAS, this is one of the Tattvas; the luminiferons ether. The 
synonyms of this word are Agni, and, rarely, Raurava. 

TH, the name of one of the Nadis which ramify from the heart. 

TRKTA, the second cycle of the Chaturyuga, a period of 3,600 
Daiva years. 

TRJNSHAXSHA, the thirtieth part of a sign of the Zodiac. 

TRUTI, (i) a division of time. One hundred and fifty Trutis equal 
one second, (ii) A measure of space; as much as the sun or 
moon takes a Truti of time to move over. A Truti is a perfect 
picture of the whole ocean of Prana. It is the astral germ of 
every living organism. 

TURA, the higher notes of music opposed to Komala. 

TURIYA, the fourth state of consciousness. The state of absolute 
consciousness. The first three states are: (i) waking, (ii) dream 
ing, (iii) sleep. 

TVAK, skin. 

UDANA, (i) that manifestation of life which carries us upwards. 

(ii) That manifestation by which life recedes into rest. 
UDALAKA, an ancient philosopher who appears as teacher in the 

Pmsh nopa n is had. 

UTTARABHADHRAPADA, a lunar mansion. 
UTTARA GITA, the name of a Tantrik work. 



250 NATURE S FINER FORCES. 

I" fTARAPHALGl N"!, a lunar mansion. 
UTTARASHADHA, another luuar mansion. 

YAIDHRITA, or VAIDHRITI, the twenty-seventh Yoga. There an- 
twenty-seven Yogas in the ecliptic. "The Yoga," says Cole- 
brooke, "is nothing else than a mode of indicating the sum of 
the longitudes of the sun and moon"; and so it is. 

YAIRAGYA, indifference to the pleasing objects of the world. 

YAK, the goddess of speech; another name of Sarasvati. 

YAM (V), the symbol of the Apas Tattva, from Yari, a synonym of 
Apas. 

\ ASANA, the habit and tendency engendered in the mind by the 
doing of any act. 

YAYU, one of the Tattvas; the tangiferous ether. 

YKDAS, the four sacred books of the Hindus. 

YEDOVEDA, a manifestation of the Sushumna. 

YKTAiyA, an evil spirit. 

YICHARA, meditation. 

YIJNANA, literal!}, it means knowing. Technically, it is the 
psychic matter and its manifestations. 

YIJNANAMAYA KosHA, the psychic coil of the spirit. 

YIKALPA, complex imagination. 

VINA, a string instrument of music. 

YINDU, point. 

YIPALA, a measure of time, % of a second. 

VIPARYAYA, false knowledge, one of the five manifestations of 
mind recognized by the sage Patanjali. 

ViRAT, the immediate father of Manu, and son of Rrahtna. The 
akashic state of psychic matter from \vhich proceed the mental 
Tattvas which constitute Manu. 

YISHAKHA, a lunar asterisui. 

VISHAMABHAVA, unequal state. This is a manifestation of Su 
shumna. In this the breath flows one moment out of one 
nostril and the next out of the other. 

VISHRAMOPANISHAD, the name of a Upanishad translated in the 
text. 

VISHUVA, YISHUVAT. this is a manifestation of Sushumna. 



GLOSSARY. 251 

YiTAKKA, philosophical curiosity. 

YVA.VA, that manifestation of life which causes everv part of the 

1-ody to keep its shape. 
Yvi.sA, an ancient philosopher, the author of the Mahdhlidrata, 

a commentator on the aphorisms of Yoga, the aphorisms of the 

Yedanta and other work--. 
YVATIPATA. one of the twenty-seven Yogas. (See Vai<!hrita.) 

YAKS MA, a class of demi-gods. 
YAKSHINI, the female Yaksha. 
YAMI-XA, in the terminology of the {Science of Breath used for 

the flowing left Nad:. 

YASHASHVINI, the Nadi which goes to the left ear. 
YUC.A, the science of application, attention, and the em1>ellisli- 

ment of the hin-.i^n i!:i;id. 






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